


One of Us

by KaibaSlaveGirl34



Series: The Lost Boys Stories and Crossovers [4]
Category: Lost Boys (Movies)
Genre: Big Sisters, Bikers, Blood Brothers, Blood Drinking, Bloodlust, Character Turned Into Vampire, Choices, Divorce, F/M, Family, Family Issues, Gen, Half-Vampires, Little Sisters, POV Female Character, POV First Person, POV Original Character, Sisters, Unconventional Families, Unconventional Relationship, Vampires
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-09-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2017-10-23 15:59:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 37,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/252192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaibaSlaveGirl34/pseuds/KaibaSlaveGirl34
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby moves to the eventful town of Santa Carla. Little does she know, the strange boy she meets at the amusement park has plans involving her little sister, plans that will change her life forever. Can she learn to love the very one she fears? DavidxOC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Harry2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harry2/gifts).



> A friend of mine on FanFiction.Net, [CarvedKid](http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1870998/CarvedKid), said I could post [One of Us](http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6037048/1/One_of_Us) on here. :) 
> 
> Disclaimer: Genius Joel Schumacher and the geniuses at Warner Bros own the Lost Boys film trilogy. I own the fanfics that I cook up from time to time.
> 
> Nice feedback is, of course, very much appreciated, of course. :)

I was twenty years old when my mother decided it was best for us to move to Santa Carla, away from my father. It had reached a stage of constant fighting for them and they couldn't bear to be alone in the same room without having disagreements. I remember it clearly; my little sister Susie was sitting in the leather armchair in the hallway, a book in her trembling, small hands and a worried expression on her little face. I couldn't blame her for being worried. You could hear them in the other room through the walls:

"I can't take this anymore..."

"You want to leave, fine. There's the door, sweetheart."

My father was very angry. What came next was a lot of thumping noises and the clatter of silverware being thrown around the kitchen. Although I miss my father greatly, it was the best thing my mother ever did. So, this brings me to our story. It was a five-hour drive and Susie was growing restless in her seat. She still hadn't mastered the art of giving mom an easy time. We pulled up into a service station and went into the small diner.

There weren't many customers there, about four or five. The owner was an old man who smelt of gasoline and salt water. Susie ordered a chocolate milkshake with a side order of fries and I ordered a glass of soda. We sat on one of the red vinyl seats by the window so we could take in the view, or lack thereof.

"You'll enjoy it here, ma'am," the owner was telling my mother as he sat the plate and our drinks on the table. I would never tell Susie this, mainly because she was too young to understand what it meant, but it looked like the owner was flirting with her. I tried my hardest not to smile at that.

After a while he got to talking about some of the regular customers around here and that's when they pulled up. There were five of them, perched on the seats of their motorcycles and flying into the parking lot, their engines roaring. They had the whole James Dean look about them, as though they thought flying around on a motorcycle was the safest thing to do.

He admitted it was awkward and difficult with the boys around, but he said the trick was to treat them like everyone else. I think deep down inside he pitied them. He said how they had no mother but fell silent as soon as they came bustling into the diner, the doorbell jingling.

My mother was all of a sudden in a rush to get out of the diner. I presumed it was because some of the boys were screaming expletives, and she was always cautious with her language around Susie. We gathered our things and I was halfway toward the door when he looked at me.

He had blond hair, combed back in an unusual-looking style. He had a toothpick between his lips and looked like he needed a shave. The thing that terrified me the most was his eyes; cold slate blue eyes that seemed to hold me in. I couldn't look away from him and it seemed as if they could see right through to the back of my brain.

He smirked, the corner of his mouth pulling slightly upward as he looked me up and down with appraising eyes and I knew I had to look away from his gaze right then. My mother gave me a disapproving look, as though she saw the whole thing, and made her way out of the door, holding Susie in her arms.

One of the boys hissed at me as I opened the door to follow my mother, a very strange thing and one of the elderly customers flinched at the sound, spilling her drink all over herself. It was very bizarre. All the customers seemed to tense and fall quiet when they entered the room. I wondered idly how much influence they had over the people in this town.

The house we were staying at was very old, with yellow paint crackling at the veneers and dead, brown leaves scattered in the garden. My mother said the house had "a lot of character". There was a fair coming up that week on the Boardwalk, and my mother was very enthusiastic about me taking Susie and, hopefully, making some new friends. I wasn't particularly excited about that prospect, but I decided to take Susie anyway.

Susie was bouncing around and couldn't stand still when we were waiting in line. It was very crowded. There were clusters of families with their children, buying fairy floss and going on the scariest rides. Susie wanted a Coke, so I bought her one from the stall using my allowance money.

I wanted to sit down for a while, so she could drink it properly without spilling it all over herself, but I didn't want to be a killjoy. We walked slowly through the crowd, following where everyone was walking to. Susie wanted to go on the carousel, so I held her drink for her and watched her. Her feet could barely touch the ground.

I sit in one of the benches, watching her face get even more excited every time the ride did a turn. That's when I saw him - the boy from the diner, the blond one. He was standing by the carousel, watching very closely as the children spun round and round. I saw him look at Susie a few times, fleetingly. Every time he did, it made my blood boil.

I hadn't noticed the ride had finished, but my sister was already walking through the opposite sides of the gate, ambling along, unsure of where she would find me. I imagined her to be crying, her lips trembling as she searched the unfamiliar faces through the crowd as I quickly went to meet her on the other side, only the boy had already beat me. He was saying something to her, and her little mind must have been full of indecision.

I rush over to her and take her hand. She looks immediately relieved when she sees me and takes her Coke, stuffing the straw into her mouth and taking a generous suck. I look up and realize the boy has already started walking away, strutting ahead of us. He disappeared quickly through the crowd.

Susie and I started walking slowly and I decide to get her something for dinner. It seemed like the suitable thing to do. I wait patiently near the stalls, my aloneness becoming apparent, magnified, as I realize Susie isn't with me anymore. I look around me hurriedly, turning on the spot several times.

I hear little children laughing, playing with their toys and food. I don't see any of Susie anywhere, but then I realize the scene is almost too familiar; she's with him. What does he want from her, my little sister? I'm halfway toward them when I hear them deep in conversation; at least it's mostly him doing all the talking. Susie is too preoccupied with sucking her straw to comprehend what he is saying and, more importantly, that he is stranger danger.

He kneels down next to my little sister, the ends of his black coat flapping in the wind. "How is that blood?" he asks her, and a sickening shiver overtakes me that had nothing to do with the chilly wind.

My mother had always stressed to us the importance of not speaking to strangers, but it's as if my sister completely reverted. He could have been a stray dog baring its wet, shiny canines and she still would have taken the moment to reach out to him without hesitation.

"Huh?" she says shyly, her little face puckered and scrunched up in confusion.

He gestures toward the Coke can she's gripping tightly in her hands. "Blood," he repeats with an expression of mirth, leaning in closer. "You're drinking blood. How does it taste?"

Of course, Susie didn't know any different. Then, as a five year old, you couldn't tell who was being friendly or who was being downright strange. All I knew was the impression I got of him merely by watching him from afar; he was certainly dangerous just by the look of him, how he'd strut around the grounds, weaving in and out of the crowds of screeching and squirming children and families as if he owned the damned place.

A shimmer of laughter breaks into the air from a group of bare-chested kids near the hotdog stand. The sound startles me and diverts my attention for a moment. When I look back over at my little sister, I stand there for a moment watching, not thinking, and not breathing. There's something red and shiny dribbling down her chin. I rush over to her, ignoring the boy and using the napkin in my hand to daub at her chin. She looks up at me confusedly as I take her arm and pull her closer to me.

The boy laughs and there's something cruel and knowing in his laugh. He stands, looming over me in height. He's much more intimidating when looking directly at you. His slate blue eyes seemed to go all the way through me and he looks at me with such a high level of intensity that it starts to unnerve me.

He smirks; it softening the harsh look of his face slightly. "Is this your little sister?" he asks, his voice coming out rasping and low.

I look into his blue eyes surrounded by laugh lines and tell him the truth. "Yes. We've only just moved here. Susie likes the fair. Tonight was my treat." I crumple the used napkin between my fingers, glancing over my shoulder for any sign of a trashcan. When I turn back I realize the boy is staring intently at my little sister now.

"It was only Coke, Susie," he says emphatically and I tighten my hold on her arm.

Susie shrinks away from him, silently flinging her arms around my hips and burying her face from sight. He doesn't look offended by this, but he doesn't look impressed either. I try my hardest not to smile in satisfaction over this as I imagine my mother speaking: "Good girl. Don't talk to strangers now, dear."

"I think we should go home now," I say to him, only it comes out more like a question than an actual farewell to end conversation.

He glances at something or someone behind his shoulder then meets my gaze again. "Now?" he repeats, raising his eyebrows. "But the fun has yet to begun. You don't wanna miss out on the best part, do you?"

I let my eyes travel down the slight, litheness of his body that his dark coat and clothes seemed to accentuate, the collar of his coat unbuttoned loosely enough that I could see the muscles in his neck through the fair, lightness of his skin. Everything about him seemed threatening, the way he walked to the way he talked, but he was also redolent of longing, freedom, fearlessness of death and danger, as though he was undying and everlasting, immortal.

I shake my head. "Oh, no, I don't think we will stay," I say at last, looking down at Susie who is now peeking up at the boy with an expression of curiosity that must so mirror my own.

Even I can notice the disappointment on the boy's face. "Come on," he says softly, touching my arm confidentially and causing Susie to swivel behind my legs. "I've met your sister, now I want you to meet my brothers."

I think about it for a moment. My mother certainly wouldn't be happy if she found out about this. Susie would confess the whole ordeal to her as soon as we got home. I look down at my watch; it's 10.45. Our curfew is 11.00. The boy is watching me expectantly, waiting, and before I can answer, he takes my hand and pulls me along. I tighten my hold on Susie's wrist and she stumbles along with me.

I don't know where he's taking me, but all I know is that holding my hand, he has a delicate touch. It isn't something you would expect from a boy who seems so brazen and startling. We are far from the fairgrounds now. The only light is the weak, dim light coming from the moonlight and I look down at Susie to discover her face is shining wet with tears. She's crying and it was then that I realized the whole thing was a very big mistake.

The boy all of a sudden lets go of my hand and Susie collides into my legs, shivering. I can barely make out her profile, or the boy's. I start to wonder idly where he has disappeared off to, but I'm more concerned over the fact that my sisters upset. Tears are leaking out of her eyes.

"It's okay little Susie," I whisper to her, pulling her close to me. "Hush." She flings her arms silently around my neck and I lift her up, her warm face buried into my neck. I feel around on the ground with my free hand, the other holding her to me tightly, feeling sticky wet strands of grass and dirt.

My mother would hold me in contempt for doing this to poor Susie. I didn't know what I was thinking, trusting this stranger so wholly and completely, regardless of the fact that he gave me the jeepers.

I suddenly feel something stroke my hair, a hand perhaps? I swivel around in the direction it came from and hear someone say, "Don't let me startle you, Ruby." It's the boy again. And it's pitch-dark out here, I am not aware of our surroundings and, of course, he startled me.

It was then that I realized this was weird. I had told him Susie's name, but I don't recall ever telling him mine. I can't see him through the darkness and I start to panic, my chest rising and falling and my body heavy with the weight of my sister in my arms. What did he mean by the word brothers? Of course, it was logical to assume he meant it at face value, but the fact that I wasn't so certain terrified me.

"Your brothers?" I brought myself to ask, my voice shaking.

My ears are freezing and I could almost make out the fog of my breath in the dim moonlight. Susie is motionless in my arms. I start to reluctantly wonder if she has been frozen to death.

"Paul," I hear a deep voice say, another boy's voice, ahead of me.

"Marko," another says to my right.

"Dwayne," a lower voice says from right behind me, laughter evident in his voice.

They were all fairly common names; I wasn't certain why that surprised me. But there were four of them – the boy who I met earlier, his name he hadn't mentioned yet - and only two of us. I doubted Susie would be included in any of this. I start getting myself worked up over horrifying theories, replaying in my mind what they could do to me. Would they gang rape me? Torture me? All the possibilities were endless but there was no way I would ever ask them. I wouldn't want to encourage or provoke them.

"Who wants to go first?" I hear the boy say ceremoniously.

Something touches my hair again and I turn wildly on the spot, my breath hitching in my throat. The noise of Susie is becoming apparent now and I can hear her breathing strenuously and sobbing into my blouse. Someone laughs; high-pitched spooky laughter that resounds painfully in my ears and echoes slightly through the air.

"W-w-what's going on?" I ask, using my free hand and reaching out blindly.

"Ruby wants to know what's goin' on," the boy with the deep voice, Dwayne, says in a mocking voice.

"What is going on?" the boy, who I assume is named Marko, says with a hint of confusion clear in his tone.

At last my hand finds something, a soft material, someone's shirt and my hand instinctively bunches it up into my fist. The boy comes into view, the one from earlier, his skin ghostly pale in the moonlight. I realize our faces must be barely inches away from each other due to my poor eyesight, but at that moment I don't care.

"Please let us go," I plead firmly, trying to keep my voice calm for Susie's sake.

He leans forward and puts his mouth near my ear. "We're not holding you captive, Ruby," he says quietly. "You can run. You only need to make sure we don't catch up to you..."

"Wishful thinking," one of the guys laugh.

"We'll give you a head start," he breathes in my ear, his voice rasping. "That's the most generosity you're gonna get from us." I try to steady my breathing. "If we catch up, where you'll be going is with us. If not, we'll let you go free..."

It sounded easy, but I wasn't that naive to believe it. "Okay," I agree, letting go of his shirt and holding Susie tighter to my chest. I run. I run, my chest rising and falling, my breathing increasing with every step I take. I ignore the voices around me, the jibes, the calling of my name. This is life or death. For Susie's sake, anyway.

I go crashing through the gate, the lights of the fairground coming into view. I weave my way through the crowd of careless, oblivious families, never slowing to catch my breath or to mutter some kind of reassurance to Susie. I stop near the hotdog stand, clutching the wall for support and breathing in and out slowly. I close my eyes. The voices in my head are getting softer and more distant. I try to decode them: "Join us, Ruby" or "Be one of us..."

I open my eyes and look down at Susie, her cheeks wet with tears. I kiss her forehead, gasping as a voice right near me says, "My blood is in her veins. She's one of us now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is appreciated, of course. :)


	2. Draining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby makes a shocking discovery....

As soon as we got home from the Boardwalk, I discovered my mother was getting prepared to go out anyway. I honestly didn't want to be alone right now, with what happened with the strange boys from the fair, but then again, I couldn't exactly tell my mother that. I could tell she was genuinely happy living here, starting over and having a clean horizon. It didn't seem fair to mess up her contentment over something as silly as what happened tonight.

"Did you two enjoy yourselves tonight?" My mother asks and she glances at both me and Susie as we enter the house, before making her way into her bedroom. I look at Susie and hold a finger up to my lips, reminding her of our pact of secrecy we made on the way home.

Susie nods and growls at mom. "Roar!" she yells and mom feigns fear. "Okay, time for bed now, Susie," she says seriously. Susie scrunches her face up. "But I don't want the bloodsuckers to bite," she says sadly. "Then keep your Bible under the bed," mom tells her before tickling her. I listen to Susie's loud boisterous laughter as I go into the kitchen.

After a few minutes, mom comes in, attaching her earrings. "Will you look after the house while I'm gone?" she asks, looking at me worriedly.

"Of course, mom," I say quickly to appease her. "And I'll make sure Susie stays in bed and that no bloodsuckers enter her room. I'll keep guard." She has always worried unnecessarily over me and Susie.

She smiles wryly. "I honestly don't know where she gets that bloodsucker nonsense from." She shakes her head. "Did you meet any new friends tonight?"

I mess with the coffee machine, turning my back on her. "Sure. Everyone is very... kind in this town." I hope she doesn't catch the sarcasm. Thankfully, she doesn't.

"Well, I'll be gone until one in the morning, dear," she tells me before rushing toward the door. I stand there and wave to her as her car glides slowly down the driveway and out of sight.

I realize it is uncharacteristically quiet in the house now, with Susie sleeping and mom gone. I don't really like the thought of being in this house alone. Sometimes the floorboards creak and the refrigerator buzzes. Perhaps I just scare easily.

Just at this moment I am startled by an intense beam of light that pans through the lace curtains of the window and into my face. I am momentarily blind as I stumble over to the window, peeking out the curtains. Everything is suddenly still, quiet outside. Then comes the loud noise of something rapping and scraping against the door, someone's nails perhaps, and I rush over a little too quickly, grabbing the wall for support.

I take a deep breath as I open the door slightly, peeking through the crack. This was going against another one of my mother's warnings about opening the door in the middle of the night. For a moment there is nothing out there except the pitch-black darkness, and then a moment later I am suddenly face to face with the boy from tonight, the blond one. I curse myself.

"I'm David," he suddenly says, extending a leather-clad gloved hand. I know better than to shake it. The wind leaking through the crack in the door is chilly and I shiver, holding my hands to my stomach. I'm feeling a bit suspicious. What is he doing here? How did he find out where Susie and I lived? I hear a soft rustling noise from behind him. Obviously someone else is out there.

"You gonna invite us in?" David asks, blocking my view so that I can't see how many others are out there.

"It's eleven thirty at night."

He leans against the door. "So?"

"Say it," two voices say in unison from outside, presumably Marko and Dwayne.

"My mother will be home in an hour and a half," I say quietly, not that it mattered much to them at all.

David glances behind his shoulder. "That's practically a yes, isn't it, boys?" he asks through the darkness before pushing past me, hitting his shoulder against mine.

The four other boys come into view, one I haven't seen before. Dwayne stops right in front of me, picking up a handful of my hair and tugging painfully on the ends before continuing on into the dining room. Paul whistles loudly, the sound echoing slightly off the walls and the boy I haven't seen before; he exchanges a nervous glance with me before going straight in after the boys.

Dwayne seemed the least intruding of the four. He stands still, looking around, his arms hanging at his sides, his long dark hair dangling down his back. Marko was staring down the hallway. We still hadn't finished unpacking yet, so the floor of the hallway was covered in boxes. "What are all of these?" he says quietly, kicking one of the boxes with the heel of his shoe.

The boy I hadn't noticed before, he was watching the other boys with an expression of wonderment. It seemed like he was desperately trying to fit in, trying to prove himself, when in actuality he stood out like a sore thumb. He wasn't brutal like the other boys, I could tell. He seemed quiet. Then again, he wasn't included in the bizarre things they had said to me about Susie tonight. I wondered idly why he'd want to be friends with such heartless people.

David is perched on our leather sofa, his legs crossed and shiny black boots resting on our coffee table. I wouldn't dare scold him for it. It was something my mother would have done however. He leans forward and picks something up off the table, using the twine to pick off the dirt on his fingernails.

"Would you all like something to drink?" I ask, not daring to forget my hospitality. Five eyes focus on me, and then Dwayne and Paul laugh. Their laughter is spooky, and it seems to me like a clear indication that something unpleasant is about to happen. I shudder at the sound and brace myself.

"What's so funny?" I ask defensively and the laughter immediately stops.

"Ever heard of a blood transfusion, Ruby?" David suddenly asks, breathing in my ear and I gasp, clutching my hand to my throat. I turn around and realize he is standing right near me now, looming over me. He's smirking at some kind of inside joke that I don't get.

I try to breathe slowly and carefully. I wouldn't want to let them have the satisfaction of knowing that they terrified me. "Of course I have," I say at last. "I'm not stupid."

"Well, that's what we're gonna need."

He pushes past me and strides over to the boy, who is now looking at him expectantly. I didn't understand how anyone could look at David like that. He turns and faces me directly, his blue eyes staring. "This here is..." he pauses. "What's your name, kid?"

The boy shifts his feet uncomfortably. "Jeremy."

"He's new to the town – like you," he continues as if there was no interruption. "Only he gets to be the sacrificial lamb..." I didn't understand what he meant by that. I imagined he was making it up to scare the poor boy. Dwayne and Paul start with their laughing again.

That's when the boy was driven into action. He produced a handgun from his jacket only he didn't make it in time. It was all very fast-paced. One moment I thought I could actually hear David's brain clicking into gear as he ascertained what the Jeremy boy had in his hand, a second later it was worse than any nightmare.

David lunged at him, the sharp canines of his teeth penetrating the skin of his neck. I watched the boys face, stunned to the spot, an outsider looking in at something extremely unpleasant. His eyes were protruding, tears leaking from his face. After a while, his skin got paler than I had ever seen one possibly go before, and I knew what it meant. Death.

Then it was Marko's turn. The boy's hands were trembling now with every audible suck and when Paul got to him I could tell he was already gone. Halfway through Dwayne's turn, David asked me if I would like to try some of the refreshment. That was how he put it. I was physically repulsed, my stomach lurching.

Paul and Dwayne resorted to dancing around with the body, taunting it and lifting its arms, fluttering the hands around and contaminating the room with their laughter. David actually looked disappointed with them. He returned to the sofa, stretching out his legs on the coffee table once again.

Soon I was lying down on the floor, in a pool of something wet and sticky, with the dead boy right on top of me. I thought it was the worst feeling in the world to be lying flat on my back with a dead boy on top of me drained and bloody. To be trapped underneath him and hearing the raucous laughter from Dwayne and Paul above me.

I closed my eyes, thinking of my little sister.

My sister would most likely be shivering under her bed sheets, trying to block her ears from the horrible sounds coming from the dining room. The boy's body was motionless, heavy on top of me. Everything was still. No breathing, no heartbeat. I was the only one breathing. I could only hear my own heartbeat. The dark surrounding me smelled like death. I could yell for hours, but the only thing keeping my mouth stapled shut was that little girl in the next room. I had to be brave for her.

I open my eyes. The body suddenly rolls off me and the four boys are crouching over me now. "Had a peaceful rest?" Dwayne says, his mouth curved up into a grin. There is shiny, wet red liquid on his chin.

"Get her up," David only said, looking annoyed.

"Why don't you get up?" Marko said. His voice was gentle, encouraging.

I found I couldn't move even if I tried. I could not get up. My whole body felt numb, my legs especially, as though moving them would be a great difficulty. The sticky wet feeling was unnerving against my skin and I felt I could be sick at any moment.

"Hey, forget about it," Paul said, standing up. "Let's just drain her, too. We'll be doing her a favour, or say, let's get her sister Susie to do it..."

My ears prick up at the sound of her name. "What about my sister, Susie?" I ask, my voice trembling. "What has she got to do with all of this?"

"Now you've done it..." I hear Marko say quietly. I met his eyes, held them, but he did not speak. It was David who spoke next.

"Where's your little sister, Ruby?" he asks, a strange smile coming across his face.

"Susie stays out of this."

"Not if you want her to live, she doesn't."

I didn't understand it at all.

"She's bound to us in more ways than one," he explains. "The need for blood is singing in her veins; she must feed."

I think my emotions finally took over then. I didn't want Susie to be involved in any of this. She was my little, selfless sister. It was hardly fair. "Please, just leave her out of this," I managed, and I kept saying it a lot. But I think David grew tired of hearing me plead. I guess in the end he had made plans for the both of us.

I tried to ignore the sticky wet sensation of blood between my fingertips, propping myself up on my arms. That's when I realized the room is a mess. My mother will indefinitely kill me when she gets home to discover all of this. Not to mention poor, poor Jeremy.

David is glaring at Paul and Dwayne sharply. "Why don't you two boneheads go make yourselves useful?" He looks at Marko. "You too. Let's move this party elsewhere."

Marko stands up, looking incredulous. "We can't just leave her on the floor in shock and with blood everywhere like that -"

"- Well, I say we can," David says, raising his voice with a deadly tone. "Now move!"

The end of my ordinary life came quickly anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is very much appreciated, of course... :)


	3. You're Lost Little Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby realizes that her little sister is going through some not-so-good changes, and the Lost Boys make another appearance...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a few lines that are a nod to the character of Ace Merrill (who was portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland the 1986 film **Stand By Me** ) in this chapter:
> 
> "You've stated your position clearly. Now I'm gonna state mine. Get on the bike. Now." ("You've stated your position clearly. Now I'm gonna state mine. Get in the f****ing car. Now.")

I can't sleep.

I can't close my eyes because every time I do I see him; David. David lunging right at me, David sinking his teeth into my neck, David sucking out my insides, David with my blood dribbling down his unshaven chin. I shiver, and pull the tangles of my bed sheet away from me. I look over at my alarm clock.

The illuminated red numbers read 12.31 through the dark. Mom will be home in half an hour. There really is no way out of this. Unless I take Susie with me and we go far away, so far that they'll never find us. She won't ever be included in any of their bizarre notions again. I stumble over to the door, flicking on my bedroom light. The light is painful and I blink a little, my eyes adjusting momentarily.

I rummage through my sock drawer, finding my secret box. I pull open the lid. It shakes noisily from all the spare coins I've placed in there. I pull out my notes and count them. I have enough for two to take a train out of here, to get out of this place, but I don't know where we'll go.

I'll use visiting our father as a diversion. My mother won't be happy about this, but she'll understand. It's life or death. I creep slowly into Susie's room, switching on the light. To my surprise, she's already fully awake. She scrambles out of her bed and runs over to me, pulling me into a tight hug. She's trembling.

I tell her to go sit in the lounge room patiently and wait for me. She obeys. I go into the kitchen, grabbing mom's black ballpoint pen and notepad. I write her a note in my shaky handwriting:

Gone to visit dad for a few days. Don't be concerned.  
Love always,  
Ruby and Susie.

Checking once again that I have all my money securely in my pocket, I go into the lounge room. Susie is sitting on the leather sofa, her feet not touching the ground, staring silently at the wall. I kneel down beside her. "Susie, we have to go away for a few days, all right?" I tell her. I can tell she doesn't quite comprehend what I'm saying; she blinks silently, then nods. I hug her again.

I get her hat off the rack and slip it on her head. My mother has always wondered why Susie liked the hat so much. I remember it clearly; our father gave it to her once when we were out together watching a ballgame. It was her safekeeping; something that reminded her that dad still loved her despite what he and mom went through.

After we buy our tickets, we walk into one of the small grocery stores on the Boardwalk for supplies. Susie looks up at me through her thick black eyelashes, her hat sliding down her forehead. "I'm thirsty."

I take her hand. "I'll get you something." She follows me down the back aisle where there is a huge row of vending machines near the staff exit. "What do you want? A Coke?"

Susie shakes her head, no. "It tastes icky."

I'm confused. "You liked it before..." I remind her.

She finally settles on a Coke and we spend the next few minutes inspecting the junk food aisle of chocolate and candy bars. It seems too decadent to spend all my allowance money on junk when real food would be more useful, for a few days at least. I buy a loaf of bread, some Oreos and a Hershey Bar for Susie. After we walk outside into the dry, night air, hand in hand, I pause for a moment, opening her Coke.

While Susie takes a sip, I look at my watch. It's 12.55. We still had half an hour until the train was boarding to Florida. There was no use in getting there and waiting early. It would have bored us to death. I step off the sidewalk and freeze, my mouth agape.

I feel as if my stomach just dropped out of my chest, as though I've lunged from a great height. They were all there waiting; all four of them. I don't know why it surprised me so much. In a way, I knew there was no getting out of this. After witnessing what happened with the poor Jeremy boy, they terrified me more than ever before. I feel the bile rise up in my throat.

They'd slithered silently onto the Boardwalk like slimy snakes. Susie is squirming with joy now. She chants the name David over and over. He looks as if he is trying to hide a grin and shakes his head. "You weren't planning on running out on us boys, was you now, Ruby?" he asks in a clearly mocking tone.

I'm not sure what possessed me, but I kept on walking, Susie straining for me to let go of her hand so she could run over to them. I tighten my grip on her hand and, before I knew what was happening, someone caught my arm, twisting me around to face them. It was him.

"If you do, she'll die," he continues in a repulsive voice.

I remember once reading somewhere that there was a killer in all of us. I felt that if I'd had a gun, I would have killed him without hesitation. I hit him with my grocery bag as fast as I could and as hard as I could. All the contents go flying, spilling out onto the pavement. He had no right to do this to Susie. I didn't even exactly know what the name was for people like him – a monster? Heartless? Cruel?

He just stares back at me with cold eyes, his chest heaving in fury. Susie has started to cry. People have started to look at us, notice the tension between us. I don't care.

"Now, now," he says gently, letting me go and raising his leather-clad gloved hands in a sign of surrender for all to see, retracing his steps. "I know you didn't mean to insult your brothers..." He climbs back on his motorbike, his blue eyes staring.

Brother? That didn't make any sense at all.

I look down at Susie. She looks up at me and I stare back at her. She's trembling, the hat sliding lower down her forehead with every shiver. I couldn't refuse her when she looked at me like that. I let go of her hand and she toddles over slowly to the boys on their bikes.

She has a sudden attack of shyness as David leans down over the handlebars and removes the hat off her head, tossing it over the Boardwalk, but my absence interferes with her concentration. She looks over at me, her face scrunched up in confusion. "Come on over here, Ruby," David says quietly, but in a voice so icy it shook me.

Susie is over near Marko now, standing on tiptoes. "Hey there, little sister," he says as she flings her arms around his neck and he lifts her onto the bike. She pats his head as though he is some kind of wild dog. Dwayne laughs. It's really starting to bug me.

"She isn't your sister," I mumble futilely. "She's my sister."

Marko smiles. "And when you become one of us, you'll be our sister, too."

I open my mouth to say some foolish remark, but then David intervenes. "Not likely boys." He tilts his head to the side, letting his slate blue eyes roam over my tense, shivering body. "I'd rather have her as a meal. Wouldn't you?"

I look away, trying not to gag. My face must look funny, because they all laugh. I shudder at the sound, bending over to pick up the loaf of bread and the Oreos that are now scattered all over the pavement. My hands are trembling. I look over in time to see Marko slipping a helmet onto Susie's head.

"What are you doing?" I ask, shocked.

I drop the food, the wrappers making crackling sounds as I trudge over them, trying to get to my sister.

Marko looks confused. "What?" he asks, holding onto my little sister tightly.

I hesitate. "You're not taking her," I say, my voice coming out small and scared now.

"She's coming with us now," David says. I force myself to look at him. "She'll just be another missing little girl on a milk carton." He shrugs, smirking, stepping on the pedal of his bike. The engine roars loudly and I flinch at the sound.

How could they do this? She has a mother; a mother that will be devastated when she finds out her youngest daughter is "missing". I feel like I'm going to cry. I can feel it in my teeth. My eyesight is starting to go blurry.

"If you wanna see her again," David continues quietly, raising his eyebrows. "You can come with..."

I feel suddenly nauseous at the thought. If I'd have to endure any more of them hurting people, like that poor Jeremy boy, in front of me I'd surely be sick or go insane. Not to mention they – most of all, David – gave me the creeps. How can you live with people who frighten you?

I have a quick idea. "I want to ride with Susie," I say, quickly wiping my face with the sleeve of my jacket to stop the tears from leaking. If I could just take hold of her and make a run for it, then maybe we could escape...

David laughs, shaking his head. "Not so fast," he says softly, rolling the bike forward over asphalt and shielding Susie from view now. "You're with us now..." He says it more like a question than a fact.

I'm sobbing now and I can't seem to stop. "Yes," I nod. "I want to see..." I falter, my voice shaking uncontrollably.

David's harsh face softens for a moment and I think that maybe he's going to comfort me. Instead, he produces a funny-looking black helmet and shoves it into my hands. "Okay," he says, a faraway and distant look in his blue eyes as he thinks this over. "You've stated your position clearly," he says, gruffly. "Now I'm gonna state mine." He lowers his voice and says in a deadly tone, "Get on the bike. Now."

I didn't argue. Not that I saw him as my "brother" or anything like that. I think, deep down, I was finally accepting the fate of my little sister, no matter how much I loathed David and the idea. I slammed the helmet on my head and I got behind him as he started the bike. I didn't want to touch him, but he clasped my wrists in his hands and forcefully put my arms around his waist. I felt like some kind of wretched prisoner. I cried all the way to where ever it was they were taking us.

It was freezing on that motorbike. The wind was biting into my skin and my face and ears ached from the cold. It was too dark to see anything else except for the orange flickering glow of the headlight. I didn't know where we were, but when David stopped the bike, I was hasty to get away from him. My leg got caught on the pedal and I toppled sideways, headfirst toward the dirt, but I didn't seem to hit the ground because the next thing I knew was that someone had grabbed me from the front of my blouse before I did.

I took the helmet off my head quickly, tearing a few strands of hair painfully with it. David is still perched on his bike, waiting for the others. They arrive barely a few moments later, the roar of the several engines making my ears throb. I go straight over to Marko's bike, him lifting Susie and putting her carefully in my arms. She isn't wearing her helmet anymore, but she's sleeping. Her body is heavy in my arms.

"Let's get something to eat," I hear Dwayne say. I follow them blindly. I hear their boots trudging through the dirt, the crackling of leaves, gravel. I realize my nose is running. I really need a tissue. "Chinese again?" I hear David say knowingly through the silence. Someone laughs.

There's a faint orange light ahead and then suddenly Marko is holding a match, the orange glow flickering on his face and making his pale skin look eerily ghostly. He smiles at me, the corners of his mouth shadowed before tossing the match and it goes sailing through the air. There's a startling sudden burst of flames and then the room is fully lit, a big old rusty can burning.

Susie stirs awake in my arms slightly, shielding her eyes from the brightness of the flames by hiding her warm face against my neck. I look around the room, innocently observing. The flames are making dark shadows jump and dance across the stone walls. There is a large bed dominating the room with sheer thin material draping along the dusty, sandy ground and large looming crevices in the corners of the room.

It doesn't look so fit for living. More like an underground cave than anything else.

I move slowly, creeping toward the bed. Located right next to it is a dirt ridden portrait of rocker Jim Morrison, from The Doors, cobwebbed and spray painted on. It was very bizarre.

"How do you like our humble abode?" Marko says from right behind me. I turn around to find him grinning broadly, proudly. "The bed's all yours..."

I hesitate, looking down at the bed. It certainly does look very comfortable, if yet a little dusty. I run my fingertips along the thin fabric, appreciating the soft, spongy feel of it. "Thank you," I say appreciatively, reaching up and loosening Susie's grip on my neck. I let her little motionless body fall onto the bed.

Marko watches curiously as I pull down the covers. "Here, let me do that," he says and I move my hands away. He picks up Susie, her head lolling to the side and places her gently on the mattress before pulling the covers up over her. She looks very warm.

Feeling content that she's safe and warm, I turn around abruptly, my knees bumping into something and my body pitching forward, landing on something or someone hard. I realize I've fallen unwillingly into someone's lap. I raise my head slowly, looking up, bracing myself. Oh no.

I scramble back up onto my feet, holding the arms of the chair for support. David is sitting in some sort of wheelchair. I didn't realize he had been there watching the whole conversation between Marko and I, watching me put Susie into the bed. He stares at me, his blue eyes holding mine in. He's so unnerving. I couldn't look away even if I tried.

"Why don't you eat?" he says. His voice is soothing, quiet. He glances behind his shoulder in time to see Paul thrusting a large box at him. He relaxes into the wheelchair, staring back at me, not daring to take his eyes off of me as he takes it from him. He opens the box and the delicious smell of food and steam wafts into the air. I'd forgotten how hungry I was, how hungry Susie must be.

He holds it out to me. I hesitate for a moment before snatching it from him. I look inside the box. There's something black, shining, wriggling.

"You like beetles, don't you, Ruby?" David asks, something cruel and knowing in his icy voice. Dwayne laughs. Paul joins in with some taunting. The sight of the beetles nauseates me. My stomach lurches.

"You're sick," I manage, flinging the box at him.

The contents of the box lands into his lap with a messy, loud splat. The laughing abruptly stops. David looks down at his lap, at the obvious mess. It must have been some kind of trick of the light. I didn't understand it at all. One moment there were black, wriggling beetles in there and now there's just plain, mouth-watering rice?

David sighs loudly. "What a waste of perfectly good food," he says disappointedly, cupping a handful of the rice into his leather-clad gloves and flicking it on the ground.

I feel as if I'm going to cry again. God knows what David will do in return for spoiling their dinner. He meets my gaze and I'm suddenly nervous. I clutch my stomach, shivering. He props himself up out of the wheelchair with his hands and the movement is so fast that I recoil slightly. The rest of the rice resting on his lap falls onto the floor, piled near his black shiny boots.

"You're gonna pay for that," he says, looming over me. I scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, of course, very much appreciated, as usual... :)


	4. Feeding Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby makes a discovery, while Susie becomes friends with Dwayne and David...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter of One of Us. Hope you like it so far. :) Feedback is appreciated, too.

The boys decide to get an early night and I am thankful for it. I felt the need to be alone, the need to wallow uninterruptedly without anyone overlooking. I pad slowly toward the bed and sit down next to Susie, my legs crossed. The springs squeak a little. I start to wonder idly how old this bed is, if the boys have slept in it. The thought doesn't agree with me very well. My stomach lurches at the thought of sharing the same pillow that David has used.

I watch Susie for a moment, the way her chest rises and falls with every inhale and exhale. It starts to dawn on me that she actually looks peaceful, happy. My throat constricts at the thought and I have to look away from her. On one of the stands by the bed, there's a dusty, dank empty alcohol bottle with a lit and burning candle corked inside the neck.

It provides a soft, low light that makes shadows dance eerily across the wall and illuminates an opening in one of the large, dark crevices on the wall. I have a sudden intense urge to go investigating. I creep off the bed slowly and pick up the bottle, directing the light toward the opening.

When I go inside the first thing that hits me is the smell: something is obviously rotting in here. A dead animal or a carcass of some sort, perhaps? A plethora of unanswerables run through my head. I raise my free hand and try to cover my nose with it, try to mask out some of the unpleasant strong stench, but it only makes it worse.

I direct the candlelight above me and am astonished by my findings.

The four boys are hovering silently in the air. It was a sight I have never seen before in my entire life. Their hands are drawn to their chests protectively. Marko looks serene, peaceful sleeping. His sandy colored hair is splayed out, hanging wildly underneath him. I sneak a look over at David and I am suddenly rigid with tension. The difference in his face is startling. He almost looks younger. He looks like a benign carbon copy of the despicable David that I know and see when he is awake.

The stench is starting to become overwhelming. I turn slowly, holding the bottle low to the ground so the orange flickers of candlelight will expose any hazardous dips and cracks in the ground that may cause me to go stumbling or tripping over. Then I hear a sound that puzzles me, causes me to stand rooted to the spot. I swivel around at the sound of it.

A low growl of agony clatters in David's throat. Whatever it is he is dreaming of, it mustn't be very pleasant at all. A very strange feeling washes over me, this intense need to comfort him and I turn back and make a start toward him.

His eyes suddenly pop open. I don't know if he is fully alert or not to see me standing right there, frozen, but all I know is that the irises of his eyes are no longer the cold slate blue they always appeared to be. Now they are red, bloodshot, murderous...

***************************************

I didn't have the courage to bring to light the fact that I was lurking around, that I watched the boys sleeping in one of the looming, dark crevices in the cave. If David did notice it, he certainly didn't mention it at all. Curiosity simply got the better of me.

People seemed to treat me differently now that they notice I'm constantly tagging alongside the boys. They don't dare look in my direction and, if they do, they look at me with fear, caution. It was very bizarre. I presumed it was because they knew what the boys were capable of, how dangerous they were. It sent an odd thrill through me.

A band is playing on the Boardwalk this evening and the sound resounds wonderfully in my ears. The energy in the air is phenomenal. I think of myself standing there by the rails with David and the boys who are now chattering and ignoring me and the band and music that are blaring brilliantly from the stage a walk away. It only takes me a moment to make up my mind; I want to dance, I want to let go of my troubles and I want to blend in, be free.

A really well-built man without a shirt on, holding a saxophone, occupies the stage. Three other musicians are behind him, standing bass, drums. The crowds are swinging furiously to the beat of the music. I walk into it, drowning in a sea of head bangers and hippies. I sway my hips slowly to the music and a Goth girl with a burning cigarette between her fingers looks over at me:

_I been in a cave  
For forty days  
Only a spark  
To light my way_

The music vibrates through my tailbone and up my spine.

I look over toward the boys. Marko sees me and gives me a little wave. "Come dance with me!" I yell at the top of my lungs. Marko starts moving on the spot, vibrating with the bass line, flailing his arms around. Paul jumps in, stepping to the music, imitating a head banger and flinging his head around:

_I wanna give out  
I wanna give in  
This is our crime  
This is our sin  
But I still believe!_

The singer blows on the saxophone and the hot, catchy hymn smacks me right in the face. I'm sweating and panting now. The music is rousing, encouraging. Soon enough Dwayne joins in, shaking his head and his dark long hair making a black blur around him. I close my eyes and the music runs straight through me, grabs hold of me without consent and moves my feet and hips and shoulders and arms. I open my eyes to see David watching me, a cigarette hanging between his lips.

I ignore him and turn around on the spot.

That's when I see him; I spy him from over the crowd. He looks fairly young, early twenties maybe. He's wearing a plain black T-shirt and jeans and hi-tops. He isn't dancing; he's just standing quietly, looking around. A boy next to him with a bright green Mohawk looks defensive, saying something to him. It looks like he's saying something rather unpleasant because he grimaces. I stop dancing and my heart is pounding. I squeeze my way through the crowd. He stares at me when I'm halfway toward him, his face bleak and confused.

I stand close and speak in his ear, "You're not dancing?" I ask loudly.

He nods then leans over me and shouts, "I honestly don't know how." I laugh. We just stand for a moment, watching the crowd and listening to the music. The music crashes to an end and then the masses of people clap, cheering for the singer and his band. A moment later, another song begins. This time it's more goading and soft.

The boy raises his voice over the music, "Will you teach me?" I look over to find him staring at me with his gray eyes. He steps back and throws his hands in the direction of the crowd. I nod. He looks grim, nervous, on guard as I take his hand and slowly drag him into the crowd.

We blend in easily and I start swaying my hips to the beat. He hardly moves at all, concentrating fiercely on the way my body moves. Then he starts nodding his head fervently, his dark, curly hair falling into his forehead. I try not to laugh. I nod my head along with him, trying to encourage him.

After a moment he stops and shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He leans in closer, looking frustrated. "I'm sorry," he says, shaking his head. "This is a waste of your time. I honestly can't dance at all..."

I smile and put my mouth near his ear. "Don't take yourself so seriously," I say emphatically. "You aren't that bad at dancing. You just need to loosen up..."

I start to dance again but he stops me. "Do you want to get a bite to eat?" he asks.

I consider. David and the other boys shouldn't mind if I'm away for an hour or two. I look over in their direction. They are all standing by the railings, chattering away, and I notice Susie is riding Dwayne's back like a little monkey, her head bobbing happily every time he moves or makes a gesture with his hands. The sight leaves me close to tears and I honestly don't know why.

I realize Susie has adapted to her new lifestyle with the boys so easily, whereas I haven't been willing to accept it at all. I'd feel like a traitor if I did. Our mother will never know that we are alive and happy. She will never see us again. I tried and we have no choice. Susie's fate has already been decided beyond repair. I know it will hurt to never see her again, but the thought of maybe someday we will run into her and my mother will finally then know, know for certain that Susie and I are all right, is something that keeps me hopeful and strong.

Still, David and I got along like cats and dogs. I couldn't bring myself not to despise him. It was something that came naturally for me. Ever since the first night at their underground home – cave, abode, I still didn't know what to call it – where I spoiled their supper, David has been treating me differently than Susie or the other boys. It's almost as if he purposely goes out of his way to annoy me or upset me.

He often used my raging appetite to his advantage; I haven't been able to eat a proper meal in days without reluctantly opening a box and finding beetles, scorpions, and other disgusting creatures withering and lurking inside; I think it was about time I finally gave up on accepting the food he was offering.

I look down at my watch. It's almost 1:00 in the morning. I didn't realize how late it was; it certainly didn't seem late. I realize its way past Susie's bedtime, but she doesn't seem to mind at all. She seems fully awake, aware.

"Yes, I would like that very much," I agree at last.

We start walking slowly on the Boardwalk together. Three steps toward the railings, they all turn to look at me; David is taking a long drag of his cigarette and gray, whitish smoke is trailing out of his nostrils. Marko and Paul whistle loudly and the boy next to me tenses, stiffens underneath his clothing. I try again not to laugh. The boy seems very jumpy. Susie starts bouncing around on Dwayne's shoulders, her small little hands reaching out for me. I wave at her, reminding her that I haven't forgotten about her and she noticeably relaxes a little, tugging on a long strand of Dwayne's hair.

"Ouch, you little bugger," I hear him say and Susie giggles boisterously. I smile at the sound, relieved.

The boy glances quickly over his shoulder back at them. When he meets my gaze again, he looks worried. "You know those guys?" he asks, his eyebrows raised.

I nod, quickly looking down at my fingernails. "Something like that, yes," I reply.

"Oh," he only says. He looks incredulous, his brows furrowed. There's a long moment of silence where we reach one of the hotdog stands, then he turns to face me. "Is a hotdog all right for you?" he asks. I nod silently.

I go to pay for mine but he shakes his head; he pays and then we both wander around silently. There are a lot of girls around in vintage flannel dresses, boys in combat gear. There are hardly any older people out at this time of the night. I start to wonder if this is a popular scene for youngsters here in Santa Carla.

I take a small bite of my hotdog and chew it laboriously before swallowing. Although I was indeed very hungry, my nerves made me feel nauseous about eating in front of this boy. I liked him. He was very different than Marko or Paul, Dwayne or David, even. He was very quiet, thoughtful, kind...

He glances over at me before cramming some of the hotdog into his mouth. Although it seemed quite bizarre, I found it fascinating to watch him eat. The Adam's apple on his throat bobbed up and down when he swallowed and he had yellow mustard on the corner of his mouth. Before I can contain myself, I daub at his mouth with my napkin in a very motherly gesture. He looks down at me, confused.

I feel so stupid. "I'm sorry," I say quickly, looking down at my hotdog. "You just had mustard on your mouth. It was very distracting."

He laughs and I found the sound of it very pleasing. "I get a tad carried away when I eat," I hear him say softly. I nod. He stares out over the Boardwalk and I take the opportunity to look at him. He's very handsome in a benign sort of way. His hair is black, shoulder-length, curly. He exudes masculinity and geniality, unlike David who looks as if he might bite... literally.

"Is it always this eventful at night?" he asks suddenly, hoarsely, and I quickly look away from him.

"Yes," I admit reluctantly. I eat a quick bite of my hotdog and then swallow before saying, "I only just moved here."

He looks taken aback. "I've lived here since yesterday," he says, smiling amiably. "I thought you were a long-timer in this town, considering your friends back there..." My heart sinks at the word "friends".

"They aren't my friends," I say defensively. I felt this sudden compulsion to make it clear that they weren't the kind of people I usually hang around with. "I was sort of... obligated to be around them." It was the only way to explain without revealing too much of my bizarre predicament to this stranger.

He nods and runs a hand over his face, and I can see a silver earring dangling from the lobe of his right ear. It seemed something all the boys did nowadays so it didn't exactly surprise me. But it glistened in the faint light. "Oh, yeah. What's your name?" he asks and that's when I remembered I hadn't introduced myself.

"Ruby," I answer quietly.

He extends his free hand. "I'm Patrick." I shake his hand, chanting the name silently in my head. Patrick. That's a nice name for a nice boy. I feel a weird combination of contentment and freedom over this knowledge.

"Are one of those guys back there your boyfriend?" he asks, waving a hand over his shoulder.

I sigh. "Definitely not." I have a sudden dismal thought of dating one of the boys and having them lock me in a coffin full of insects, surrounded by their raucous laughter. I shudder at the thought. It seems like something they would do.

"Of course not. I mean, you don't seem like the type..." I hear him say, talking faster and faster by the minute. He lowers his voice, pondering loudly. "I've heard they have quite the clouded reputation. You seem like a nice girl. It doesn't make any sense..." He suddenly stops walking and lifts up his half-eaten hotdog. "I can't eat anymore," he says, looking strangely guilty.

I laugh. "Yes, I'm sorry but I can't either..." We both stride over to one of the trashcans and dump our hotdogs in at the same time. We spend the next few minutes walking in the opposite direction.

I start to feel uneasy as we reach the end of the Boardwalk where the boys and Susie are still by the railings, waiting. Patrick seems to notice this. He shoves his hands in his pockets and stares at me. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Ruby," he says before looking down at his sneakers.

I hear Marko and Paul starting with their whistling again. "Kiss him," Paul says in a taunting growl. He suddenly looks uncomfortable, his body stiffening and I know that he's heard it too. He runs a hand through his hair before meeting my gaze. "I'll see you around," he says quietly, looking over my shoulder and glancing at the boys pointedly before turning on his heel and walking down the steps.

I stare after him for a moment. Someone puts their arm around my shoulder, jostling me. It's Marko. He's grinning broadly, leading me over to the boys and Susie. "Why didn't you just bone him, little sister?" I hear Paul say, laughing. His laughter falls short when David punches him in the stomach. " _Oof,_ " he says, clutching his stomach.

Susie is still up on Dwayne's shoulders. She makes a loud noise, holding her arms out to me and struggling to get off his shoulders. As Dwayne gently puts Susie onto her feet, she comes toddling straight over to me. I am startled by the difference in her face. She looks thinner. Her eyes look too big for her face. I kneel down, stroking her soft, curly hair. "Are you okay, Susie?" I ask quietly. She nods.

David kneels down, looking at Susie now, who has her thumb in her mouth. He whispers something in her ear, something that I can't make out. The closeness between Susie and him annoys me. I don't exactly know why it bothers me so much. He squeezes her shoulder and then she grabs his black coat urgently, pulling him closer to her. She says something in return, some confirmation of some sort and he nods his head slowly and smirks. He stands, looming over me.

"Feeding time," Marko announces, clasping his hands together and regarding me anxiously.


	5. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby decides that wherever Susie is, then that means home...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter of One of Us. Hope you like it! :)

They all look at me. It makes me suddenly nervous. "What?" I ask. David points over at something behind my shoulder. I turn.

A woman is alone, standing by the doorway of a video rental store. She looks distracted. She shouldn't be alone in the middle of the night, definitely not when there are dangerous people like David around. I feel a pang of sadness for her.

I don't understand what's going on, but then David pushes Susie forward gently and she staggers. She starts emitting small little heartbreaking noises of distress, waddling through the crowd. I have a sudden intense urge to rush over and comfort her, but David grabs my arm. "Hold it," he says curtly.

"She's a natural..." I hear Marko say.

Susie is over near the woman now. The woman notices Susie and looks startled, leaning down. "Are you lost little girl?" she asks.

Susie stares at her impassively before nodding her head slowly. "I can't find my mommy," she says sadly.

"Here." The woman takes her hand. "I'll help you find her." They start walking slowly in the opposite direction, the woman looking around.

Paul bursts out laughing and when I look over at him, he grins and gives me two thumbs up. "We'll meet you back here in, say, half an hour," David breathes in my ear, his breath tickling my ear. "Don't be late."

Before I can answer, he squeezes past me and starts walking in the direction of Susie and the kind woman. The boys quickly follow, Marko staring at me and backing away slowly, his hands at his sides, as though daring me to follow them. When he sees I'm not going to budge, he swivels around on his heel and strolls on after them.

Great. Now what am I meant to do? I look around. I walk aimlessly toward the entrance of an old record store. There's loud rock music emulating from the jukebox, customers in band T-shirts and ripped jeans wandering around the aisles. A Goth girl with an unlit cigarette in her mouth is studying religiously one of the Punk aisle catalogues, her heavy fringe falling into her eyes.

I walk down the Jazz aisle slowly, cautiously, observing. Two hippies in bright yellow robes are lounging around, sprawled out on the carpet in the corner of the room, their hands tangled together. I wander around near the Punk aisle, hoping to go unnoticed, as my movements attract the Goth girl's attention. A boy is standing next to her, his back to her, flipping through the bin of records.

It's Patrick.

He's wandering around the store with the young boy from the Boardwalk tonight, the boy with the green Mohawk. He flips through another one of the bins. "Sorry, buddy," I hear him say reluctantly. "I don't see any Sex Pistols, The Clash, anything..." Out of the corner of my eye, I see him turn his head into my direction.

I can feel myself going red. I pretend to be looking at something very interesting, flipping through the bins. My heart is racing. I look up again quickly to see him saying something to the boy, using his hands for emphasize. He's clearly lecturing him on something, and the boy grimaces.

Then he looks right at me. He holds my eyes for a few seconds and then beckons me over. I hesitate, before walking slowly over toward him. "Hey, you remember me, don't you?" he asks apprehensively, shoving his hands into his pockets. "From tonight..." When I don't say anything, he raises his eyebrows and his forehead scrunches up comically. "You know, we had the hotdog?"

I smile. "Of course, I remember you," I say finally. "You're Patrick."

He looks relieved. "Yeah."

The boy with the green Mohawk darts me a look and then laughs, shaking his head. Patrick glances over at him, scratching his neck in annoyance, and then reaches over, putting his arm around the boys' shoulder. Suddenly, the boy grins at me. "This here is my little punk of a brother Alex."

The boy with the Mohawk nods his head fervently. "Nice to meet you," Alex says quietly. He's wearing the usual punk attire; all black, full ripped T-shirt and safety pin getup, combat boots.

"Now remember," Patrick says to him in a very serious voice. "Mom said no piercings until you're at least eighty-five." I burst out laughing, I can't help it. Patrick grins broadly.

I catch his younger brother's eye and he makes a disgusted face. "Ugh. I'll be dead by then..."

The rest of our conversations together come haltingly and Alex resorts to asking one of the owners of the store for any Punk record recommendations. There's a young boy behind the counter, about Alex's age. A boy wearing a bright red bandana wrapped around his head, red flannel shirt and combat boots comes in carrying a huge box, heaves it on the counter, and then looks at us questioningly before going back out to the staff exit. Patrick and I exchange a glance.

The boy in the red flannel shirt comes back out again and walks over to us. He mutely thrusts a thin paper book at Alex before starting to unpack the boxes. Alex looks up at his older brother. Patrick is silent and quizzical.

"Hey, excuse me," Alex says loudly. The boy, who is now piling records on the counter, pauses and meets Alex's gaze. "This isn't what I asked for."

The boy shrugs. "You should probably take it," he says in a very deep voice, a voice that seems unnatural for his scrawny, boyish stature.

Alex looks down at the book. I lean forward slowly, looking at it intently. It's some sort of comic book with a bold title that reads _"Vampires Next Bite"_ in calligraphy. It's very bizarre. He turns the page slowly, and a graphic-looking woman scantily clad in a red dress with large, bulging breasts is printed on the second page. I couldn't imagine why Alex would need to read such a thing.

"Awesome!" Alex seems so pleased with it that he doesn't even seem to mind that it could almost pass as crude pornography. "What I'd give to see one of them..." The way he says it, so innocent and childlike, confuses me.

The boy squints at Alex and says with a grim expression, "Yeah, well, consider yourself warned. You could be next." He leans in closer and says sotto voce, as though informing him of a deadly secret, "Bloodsucking scum roam the earth looking for punks like you to feast their fangs on..."

There's a long awful moment of silence where the two stare at each other silently, glowering. Then Patrick embraces his little brother, giving his shoulder a light squeeze and his brother jumps as though he has administered an electric shock, alarmed. "Come on, let's get out of here, Alex," he says, veering his brother toward the exit. I quickly follow them.

Alex looks both excited and scared now. "Look Patrick, I got a free comic book." He laughs, holding up the comic book to him. "Isn't it the coolest place around here?"

Patrick suddenly looks nervous. "Sure, if you like these sorts of things..." He looks over at me and rolls his eyes, grimacing. I try not to laugh.

Outside the store, Patrick stops walking and runs a hand over his face. He doesn't look very happy at all. "Didn't it creep you out, what they were saying back there?" he asks me indignantly.

There's no denying that I really liked Patrick and his younger brother, and it makes me feel sad to mislead him in this way. But it has to be done. I hesitate. "Not exactly."

He smiles, but it's not a very friendly smile. "And you believe it too, right?" You would too if you knew, I think but I don't say. He sighs loudly. "You know what? You can just forget it..." He grabs his brother by the shirt and pushes him forward gently.

"Oh, can't we look around some more?" pleads Alex.

"No," Patrick retorts firmly. "You should go straight home to mom..."

He makes a face. "But everyone else gets to stay out late!"

"I said no," Patrick says again, his voice rising. "You're just a kid. Go home." He points in the direction of the steps. "Go home, Alex." Alex starts strolling slowly, then turns around to face us directly, frowning, his hands at his sides helplessly.

I think about it for a moment. It certainly wouldn't be safe for a boy as young as Alex to be walking home alone at night, especially when there are people out here like David. "He really shouldn't walk home by himself at this hour," I say. Patrick looks over at me resignedly. I shrug.

Patrick stares at me for a moment then glances over at his brother sharply. He looks as if he is silently considering. "Fine," he relents at last. Alex looks victorious. "Yes," he says happily, punching the air with his fist.

We all walk a few feet apart, with me leading, down the Boardwalk. I didn't exactly know where I was walking, but something captures my full attention. At the end of the Boardwalk, there is a large, thick bulletin board. There are thousands of photocopied black-and-white photographs of strangers, bold headlines that read "Missing". I look at the photographs intently. There's a photograph of a man with a handlebar moustache and grim expression on his face, a boy barely Alex's age in a baseball cap, an elderly black woman...

"That's weird," I hear Patrick say from right behind me. I turn to discover that he's no longer glowering; he's obviously out of his bad mood. I feel an immense amount of relief over this. His brother is standing beside him, flipping idly through his comic book.

"Let's get something to drink," I suggest, and he nods. His brother looks thankful for the change in direction and runs back toward the record store.

We spend next few minutes roaming around for a place to sit. We find a small shop with an elderly woman behind the counter and slide into one of the booths and on the leather seats. The woman comes over to greet us, smiling warmly. Patrick runs a finger down the columns of the menu. "I'll have a coffee, zero sugars," he says, handing the menu to me. I order the same.

There's a long moment of silence where we just sit there silently, waiting. I start to wonder if Susie is all right, if she is safe with the boys, but I know and trust that they wouldn't dare to hurt her. The elderly woman brings over our coffees at last. Again, I have a sudden attack of nerves. Even the thought of something as little as drinking in front of this boy makes my hands tremble.

"Do you like it here in Santa Carla?" Patrick asks before taking a sip of his coffee.

I shrug. "It's something you slowly have to get used to, I guess," I reply reluctantly. I stare down at my steaming mug of coffee for a moment. "Why did you move here with your family?" I ask, curious.

He smiles. "I don't know." He takes a spoon from the dispenser and doctors his coffee, stirring it. "My parents insisted and, well, my brother... he loves it here." He takes a sip of his coffee and grimaces, before saying, "My brother blends in well, being the little punk that he is."

I laugh. I detect a large amount of fondness for his younger brother. It doesn't surprise me. I'm intrigued now. I sit up straighter in my seat. "Are your parents divorced, too?"

"No. My parents are actually hippies. They believe in free-love and all of that bullshit..." He shakes his head, looking acutely embarrassed. "My father says that's the key to why their marriage is such a success..." He looks down at his coffee, running a forefinger along the rim of his mug. "I think maybe that's why they moved to Santa Carla; to expand their horizons."

"Oh." His sincerity baffles me. I stare down at my coffee, then take a small sip. It's very strong, and hot. The liquid burns my throat.

Patrick looks very uncomfortable now. "My mother, well, she's just sort of always there, and she's very understanding. Beats me..." He shrugs. He stares down at the table. He looks distracted, pensive, his mind elsewhere. When he meets my gaze again, he leans forward in his seat. "At school the kids always thought I was different. My mother always found a way to cajole me into taking a thermos of wheatgrass juice to school every morning..."

Hearing the events of his childhood made me think back unpleasantly to my family, to my mother. I found myself hoping and wondering if she was all right.

Patrick laughs. "I remember sitting there in the playground... all the kids around me were eating cherry-flavored Pez and drinking soda, and I was the weird kid with wheatgrass juice and carrot sticks..." Reminiscing on such things, he looks very hurt. It's obviously evoked the strong feelings of frustration he's had with his parents over the years.

I'd never had that problem with my parents. I couldn't imagine it at all. He doesn't say anything else after that. He presses his lips tightly together and stares down at the table. I don't say anything either. We finish our coffees and then leave the store, thanking the elderly woman behind the counter for her kind hospitality.

Soon his brother Alex rejoins us. We all say goodbye and then they leave. It's two-thirty in the morning now. The temperature is starting to drop and the wind is becoming very cold and biting. I walk on the Boardwalk, dodging a few clusters of people who are exclaiming loudly over clothing and food. To my relief, I find the boys easily, waiting by the railings where we agreed to meet earlier. I found it strange that they roused such feelings of relief and security over me.

I hear Susie screaming "Ruby!" as she spots me. She starts to whimper. I rush over to her, squeezing past Marko and Dwayne. "What did you do to her?" I ask, bending over her worriedly. I look over at David, expecting an answer.

Instead Paul says, "She finally saw the boogie monsters." He must see the confusion on my face because he quickly adds with a simpering air, "She almost massacred the whole population of Santa Carla and left none for us..." He laughs and shrugs.

I ignore him. It seemed like I was the only one taking this very seriously. Susie looks up at me, tears clinging to her long black lashes, her lips quivering. "Hey, kid," I hear David say softly. I turn around. He strides over to her sedately. Susie stares up at him, her arms dangling at her sides. "Check it out."

He holds out a stuffed, bright-pink lamb to her – one of the prizes from the gaming stalls – and makes it dance, rocking it back and forth with his hand. Susie's eyes widen and her lips part in surprise. She starts emitting shaky high-pitched giggles and David smiles, thrusting the stuffed animal into her little hands.

It was very bizarre. I'd never seen David act so compassionately before. He notices me staring. "What?" he asks, smirking and making motions with his hands, patting his trench coat pocket before turning on his heel and strutting over to the railings.

I'm speechless. Who is this new David that has replaced the old, despicable one? The question lingers in my head unanswered, but I like it. Susie sits down on the wooden panelling of the Boardwalk and plops the lamb down next to her.

I look over and notice that Marko is staring too. He meets my gaze and smiles his vast smile. He gives me a little wave before inclining his head and watching Susie patiently as she plays with her new gift from David. I stand beside him and look at her. She's barefoot now; her booties are gone. Her face doesn't look so thin anymore. She hugs the stuffed lamb close to her, clutching it tight with her hands.

David is smoking again now. The strong stench of tobacco is something that I'm beginning to associate with the boys. They always seem to have a cigarette hanging between their lips and the smoke constantly burns and stings my nostrils. Paul ambles over to the railings and steps over it, his leather pants squeaking, and sits perched up on the top railing with his legs dangling over the sides. David offers his cigarette to him. "Dessert?" I hear him say, and Paul bursts out laughing and accepts it.

At the start, everything was so dramatic and intense and frightening and unsettling. There was a lot of stuff going on, stuff that I wasn't even certain I wanted to know. Living with the boys, I thought it would always be like that. I thought I would die if I had to live with these terrifying and yet automatically fascinating boys. I thought I would suffer greatly if I never saw my mother ever again.

But, now that I know I'll always have Susie with me, and that these boys mean her no harm, I've actually found myself enjoying their company. To observe them, to see how they interact so closely with each other, it's almost as if they are one, big, tight protective family and Susie and I are included in all of that. A strange feeling of warmth floods through me.

Marko puts his arm around my shoulder, warming me from the slight chill in the night air. "Hey, little sister," he says, bringing me back down into this moment. My face feels wet. "No need to cry," he says quietly and I realize my eyesight is now blurry. I quickly wipe my eyes with my hands. "Let's go home," he says at last, grinning broadly. I nod.

Home? If home is where Susie is, then the boys must be home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is appreciated, of course. :)


	6. The Other Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby wonders about David and Susie...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter of One of Us. Hope you like it. :)

I wake up gasping and my eyes pop open.

A small rush of wind is leaking in through one of the higher cracks on the ceiling of the cave, the flame of the candle corked in the neck of the dusty alcohol bottle wavering and rustling loudly. It's morning hours now, judging by the soft, orange light emitting through the crack. This knowledge placates me for some unfathomable reason and I feel around blindly, searching with my hands for Susie in the covers.

My hands find nothing and I roll onto my side in a state of panic. Where is she? She was here last night with the boys so where did she go?

The only thing I can find relating to Susie is the stuffed, pink lamb that David gave her last night, resting on the foot of the bed where she placed it when the boys were saying goodnight. My mind starts replaying the happenings of last night like a videotape:

"Catch you on the other side, little sister," Paul said, grinning. Something clinked every time he moved, something metallic, one of the many heavy chain ropes adorning the sleeves of his leather jacket perhaps, and he winked at me before he slinked easily through the crack and out of sight.

Dwayne hesitated, taking longer than the other boys. He stood right near me. He was so tall that he towered over me; it's something I hadn't noticed before. He leant down and kissed the top of my head sloppily, and my breath hitched in my throat. I remember feeling shy all of a sudden. "'Night Dwayne," I said in a wobbly voice. He sauntered silently over to the crack and then he was gone.

Marko walked slowly over to me, Susie toddling alongside him. He was holding her hand and she looked up at me. "You can sleep with Karen," she said, before plopping the stuffed lamb onto the bed.

I remember feeling very miserable when she said that name; _Karen_. Karen is our mother's name and I couldn't imagine why Susie would want to call her toy that without making her feel lost and lonely without her. Marko smiled his vast smile and then let go of her hand. He strolled silently over to the crack and then he too, was gone.

I wasn't expecting David to say goodnight to me and I didn't want to embarrass myself by standing there and waiting expectantly, so I turned on my heel and went straight over to the bed. It was then that I realized Susie hadn't come to the bed with me. David must have taken her with him – she must be sleeping with them – but how?

I pull the tangles of the bed sheet away from me and hop out of the bed. I step over the numerous white, empty paper containers of Chinese food that are scattered all over the ground, intersected with leftovers of rice and noodles from last night and reach for the alcohol bottle, cupping my free hand over the flame.

When I enter the opening, I realize the smell is more sickening than I anticipated. The stench burns my nostrils and I have to hold my breath so I don't gag. I direct the light above me shakily.

"I don't believe it," I say quietly to myself.

Susie, my little sister, is suspended from the ceiling like the other boys, her hands and face stationary, white and disembodied in contrast to David's black coat and trousers, her face inclined level to his chest. I can tell she's deep into her sleep; her body is limp in his arms and she has her legs twined around his waist. Her hair is splayed out underneath her, dangling down past her ears, a curtain of wild brown curls and tangles.

It seems as if David has really taken her under his wing and in some wretched sense this fills me with both sadness and gratitude. It suddenly dawns on me that I haven't been paying much attention to what must have been happening to my little sister. Is she really now one of them?

The question lingers unanswered in my head, but simply by looking at her, it doesn't need to be asked.

The question that terrifies me and simultaneously thrills me at the same time is the subject of _what_ she is? Will she be the same Susie that I have always known from childhood? The same Susie who I grew up with, the Susie who loved talking to her stuffed toys and who giggled and wriggled like a fish out of water whenever you attacked her by tickling her tiny feet? I suppose in time I will know.

But, looking at David, who is so brazen and cruel and inhumane in every single way, did this change him? Surely he couldn't have always been the monster that he is today? Surely he too was once a kind, gentle person - one who might have actually even loved someone and would have done anything in his power to protect them?

All these questions pierce me with a deeper sense of sadness and I have to quickly turn away. There is a constant tickling in my throat, a cough that is threatening to escape at the pungent stench wafting in the air. The stench from before seems to be magnified and I start to wonder idly if it has something to do with the fact that Susie is the latest addition to their peculiar family.

I couldn't fathom why it smelt so much down here, like an animal carcass rotting in the desert...

I direct the candlelight down low to the ground and creep slowly toward the thin opening, dead leaves and gravel making loud crackling, scratching noises from the weight of my shoes.

"You're dead."

Oh. I stop still, holding my breath, terrified that if I dare exhale a scream or cough will unwillingly escape from my mouth. I knew who said those words. Nobody could possibly ever say it as icy and low and full of warning as him – David. My body tenses in apprehension and I stand still for a long moment, not thinking, not breathing, waiting, almost surrendering for him to come get me, kill me, rip me into pieces, plunge his teeth into my neck... only it didn't come.

I turn around on the spot slowly, cautiously, directing the light above me. He couldn't be – but he just said –

David is still hovering in the air, like the other boys. Susie is still wrapped around him and his hands are still holding the small of her back protectively. His eyes are shut and his face, his face is still this facsimile of David, albeit the benign, peaceful one. He's obviously still sleeping, but then it didn't make any sense; I was so certain he had discovered me standing there, watching them. Why else would he say those words?

Again it baffles me, the change in his face. That mask of hatred and hostility doesn't seem to be there anymore; he looks young, restful. For all I knew, he could have been a few years older than me at the very least but, then again, I didn't know how... old he was in _his_ years. And, in all honesty, I didn't really want to know right now.

I return back to the bed, not daring to look back at them for one last time as I do. I shiver at the cool morning wind that blows in through the crack, holding the blanket tighter to my chest. I wait for a long time in silence, my hands clasped around my knees, but they don't seem to rouse from their sleeping.

If there was something I had grown accustomed to about the boys; it was that they seemed to sleep all through the morning hours and only awoke at six o'clock at night, when the sun was down. It was something that fascinated me and here's the secret: I enjoyed those mornings and afternoons alone with Susie. Being alone with her, it was very reassuring. She seemed the same despite this new lifestyle with the boys, only now, sleeping all day along with them, I wasn't so certain...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is appreciated, of course. :)


	7. Type A or Type B?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby wonders why the Boys enjoy picking on her...

"Blood type A or Blood type B?" Marko asks Paul in a hushed whisper. "Better make it quick, bud..."

It only takes Paul a second to think about it. "Type B, baby," he says in a sing-song voice, licking his lips. "All the way..."

They both laugh and then Marko nudges him in the ribs, whispering, "What about David, huh?" Paul snorts derisively. "Is he a Type A or what?"

"Will you two shut up with all of that prattle?" David says loudly and we all turn to look at him. He's lining his next shot, a cigarette burning between his lips and his eyes squinted in concentration. "If either one of you was Type A or Type B, I'd still kill you both regardless..." His mouth twists up into a smirk as he sends the cue ball rolling toward one of the corner pockets. It teeters on the edge before falling. End game. He sets the cue stick on the table as he says, "And let's not forget, if Ruby over here was on the menu, she'd be the appetizer."

He struts back over to his seat, stretching out his legs as Marko and Paul laugh hysterically. It wasn't the first time David said such things about me, so it didn't faze me too much. I sigh, fanning myself with the menu. The fireplace is sending the room into scorching high degrees, my blouse sticking to my skin from all the sweat that has adhered to it.

Susie is bouncing around in her seat, her legs swinging back and forth. I realize she's staring right at David, who is opposite her. He leans forward across the table, tapping the tables veneer with a finger to get her full attention. "Simon says finger to your nose..." I watch as she stares at David for a moment, blinking, thinking hard, and then she hesitantly copies his movement, putting a small finger to her nose.

"Very good," he praises her and she looks delighted. She sits up straighter in her seat, waiting patiently for another command. "Simon says finger to your mouth." She puts her finger to her mouth without hesitating this time and David smirks before meeting my gaze, his slate blue eyes darkening. "Simon says... bite her head off."

Marko, Paul and Dwayne erupt into fits of laughter, clutching their stomachs. Susie looks at them all and stares, not knowing what to do.

David takes a deep drag of his cigarette before stabbing it out into the glass ashtray on the table. "All right," he says in a dry voice. "Let's get out of here, boys."

They all get to their feet and bustle out the door, Paul and Marko taunting each other boisterously. I follow closely behind with Susie, who hums to herself distractedly. I didn't know where we were going, but I followed them anyway, not feeling much like being by myself tonight.

Near the railings of the Boardwalk, Marko puts his arm around me, shaking me. "We're going to get something to eat," he says, grinning. "Want to come, little sister?"

I nod slowly. Dwayne picks Susie up and puts her on his shoulders. She giggles.

"Do you hear that?" David asks the boys after a moment, with a faraway, distant look in his eyes.

Paul chuckles. "Somebody's got the boom box out," he says, clasping his hands together excitedly.

I follow them as they stride off through the Boardwalk, their boots trudging against the dirt and sand. I found it difficult to keep up with them. Trudging through the wet dirt and sand was a struggle for me, and I tired easily.

"I'll meet you all back here," I say, trying to catch my breath. I spot an old tree with leaves and broken pieces of bark intersected underneath the branches and I walk slowly over to it, resting my head against the trunk, squeezing my eyes shut.

My heart is pounding and I slide down to the ground, clasping my arms around my knees. The only thing I can hear is the constant whooshing of the breeze in my ears, the rustling and crackling of the leaves.

Suddenly, a piercing scream resounds through the air. Susie? I think in a panic. Were the boys hurting her? Another scream, louder this time, and I cover my ears with my hands. It definitely couldn't have been Susie, I countered. The screams were high-pitched, deep – a man's? I didn't exactly know what was going on down there on the beach and I didn't really want to know...

I wanted to block everything out because, that way, nothing seemed real. Susie seemed the same and that was all that mattered to me now.

When I open my eyes, I see a surprising sight. Susie is over near the sandbank, kneeling down, her head bowed. What was she doing all alone? And without the boys? I stand and stroll slowly toward her, the back of her hair rippling in the wind. She's humming to herself – an unfamiliar song I don't recognize – and she's gathering sand between her fingertips, letting it slip through like an hourglass.

"Susie?" I whisper.

She shows no indication that she heard me. I wonder if she's crying, if something upset her.

"Do you miss her, Ruby?" Susie suddenly asks, her head still bowed, her voice coming out small and scared.

I knew she was talking about mom.

"No," I lie, kneeling down next to her on the sand.

"David says you do." She shrugs. "Did David tell you about mommy, too?"

I'm suddenly nervous at the mention of David and our mother. What _did_ David tell her?

"What are you talking about, Susie?" I ask, reaching out to touch her. I pull her small wasted body to me. I still can't see her face.

She rocks back and forth, her tiny arms clasped around her knees. "Mommy wound up dead," she says in a hushed whisper. I wanted to cry at her words but I couldn't. How could David be so cruel to tell her lies like that? "Mommy slit her wrists and killed herself. David says she doesn't want us anymore and that Max's our new daddy now..."

I felt so scared. I felt as though I could throw up. I stared at my shoes in numb shock; I guess I knew that David could be so cruel sometimes, but could his words actually be true? Is our mother really dead as he said? Surely not.

"Don't be ridiculous, Susie," I whisper, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her slightly. "She isn't dead, she can't be," I say angrily. "David's just a... a..." My hands started to shake first and then I felt as if I couldn't hold it in any longer. I moved away from her and heaved onto the sand. No, I kept telling myself. No, he's lying.

"Ruby," was all I heard Susie's small voice say from behind me.

I tried to remember our mother, the look on her face before she left to go out for dinner, and I couldn't remember her at all. I couldn't even remember what she looked like. My own mother and I couldn't even remember. What a wretched daughter I make!

I wrap my arms around my knees, desperately wanting to go home to my mother. Susie must have toddled her way over to me because she flung her arms around my neck and buried her cool face into my hair.

I didn't know how long I sat there, how long Susie sat beside me trying to comfort me because she could tell I was upset. "Who's Max?" I asked her after a long moment, confused.

"He doesn't want me to talk about him." Of course, he doesn't.

Susie swivels around to my side and I can finally make out her face from the orange flickers of light coming from the bonfires. Although half of her face is shadowed, I can still see something wet and shiny on her chin. I reach over and wipe her mouth with the sleeve of my jacket and her mouth pulls up into a tiny mischievous grin, a gap in her teeth showing. She hugs me and I hold her as closely as I can. "I don't want you to ever die," I whisper to her desperately.

"Well, what do you know about this, boys?"

Susie pulls away from me quickly and emits a high-squeal at the sound of his voice, bouncing up over the sandbank and colliding into David's legs. I sit there for a moment watching, trying to breathe slowly to get over the shock. "Check it out," Paul says, lifting her up and swinging her around. She laughs loudly, tendrils of her curly hair whipping around her.

"You ready?" David asks, eyeing me with his cold eyes.

"Yes," I answer flatly. I quickly wipe my mouth and stand, dusting the sand off my trousers.

Paul is spinning Susie around faster and faster by the minute; I can tell she'll end up being sick by this rate if they keep doing it. "If either one of you makes her sick, I'll stake you both," David says menacingly to Paul and Dwayne to my surprise, grabbing her off of Paul and carrying her along with him toward his bike.

The other boys follow, Paul and Dwayne laughing hysterically. I tag along slowly, staring at the ground as the boys all climbed onto their bikes. I look up and see Susie sitting on David's, her small hands clenched around the handlebars and humming to herself distractedly.

They all seemed desperate to get back to the cave, Dwayne especially, who kept looking over at me as he kicked the pedal of his bike. I found I couldn't entirely meet their eyes. I felt so angry with them that I could cry. I climbed onto Dwayne's bike, resting my head along his back and closing my eyes all the way to the cave.

I felt so drained that I wanted to sleep. I wanted to ignore all the boys and sleep for days. I felt oddly comforted by the thought that it was almost morning, that the sun soon would be up and that the boys would soon have to return back to their hiding places and rest. But the fact that Susie was included in that made me feel saddened.

I went directly to the bed as the other boys started talking about food and eating. I buried myself under the covers, squeezing my eyes shut trying to block their voices out. Perhaps I was futilely hoping with my antisocial attitude this evening the boys would take the hint and leave me in peace. Only I found a moment too soon that the cave had went uncharacteristically silent and I knew the boys were still in here.

The mattress of the old bed lurched and the springs squeaked and I clung onto the blankets for dear life; I had spent long enough with the boys to know what that awful silence meant – a clear indication that something cruel and treacherous was about to happen at my expense.

Someone trod on my elbow painfully with the heel of their shoe and I swiftly tucked my arms to my chest and laid into the fetal position, my breathing becoming shallow as I waited. What was going on? Why did they enjoy picking on me so much?

Suddenly the covers are pulled off me and I squeeze my eyes shut tighter, pretending to sleep. Tears leak from my eyes and my body starts shivering from the biting wind escaping from a crack in the ceiling. I can feel someone staring at me. Please leave me alone, I think to myself.

There's a long moment of peaceful silence and I start to relax, loosening my tense muscles. A second later, someone whispers unpleasantly in my ear, "Wake up, you little maggot!" Someone laughs and sickening shiver passes through me at the sound of it.

Someone grabs my shoulder and shakes me and I reluctantly open my eyes. David is leaning over me with those murderous eyes, all red and bloodshot and revolting and then it hits me that I'm going to be killed and I roll onto my side, leaping out of the bed, and falling onto the dirty ground hard.

I stand up as fast as I could, looking down. Anywhere but at him.

"Stay away from me, David," I say in a wobbly voice. "You make me sick, you bastard."

I didn't quite know what possessed me to say that. But I knew there was no turning back...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is very much appreciated... :)


	8. Warding off David

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby tries to figure out a way to ward off David and keep Susie safe...

"Mom?" I call, creeping along the hallway.

I step over a few of the unpacked boxes, the floorboards creaking loudly underneath me. Why wasn't my mother answering? Why wasn't she home?

"Mom?" I call again, louder this time.

At the end of the hallway, I turn, looking up the staircase. The dim, pale light casting in from the tall window of the hallway emits a soft, ethereal glow and I tread carefully up the staircase, not wanting to trip or fall. I can tell the light is on in the bathroom through the small crack in the door and I automatically assume my mother is in there. There's a faint rustling noise and I pause for a moment, taking a deep breath before pushing the door open.

My mother is lying fully clothed in the bathtub, her brown eyes wide open, unseeing, her head lolled to the side. Everything in the bathroom is still and I start to panic, wondering if my mother is breathing or not. Her chest doesn't seem to rise or fall with an exhale or inhale and when I inch closer to her, I see that the flesh on her neck is torn apart, ripped open, red everywhere.

No, I say to myself. No, she can't be dead. No!

Blood starts running down her neck like a teardrop and it falls into the bathtub and I watch as the water slowly grows redder with every drop. I slide down to the white tiled flooring next to her, and clasp my hands between my knees. I watch her for a long moment. Who did this to her? Did _he_ do this to her?

"Ruby?"

Susie.

I scramble to my feet, wanting to hide the heartbreaking sight from my little sister and when I turn to face her, I realize it's too late. She stares down at her mother, her eyes wide with fear. Her lips quiver, her small body twitches and I watch in horror as a growl issues from her chest, between exposed fangs. She turns away from me, cowering in the corner, her body trembling, and her curly hair draped over her face like a curtain.

"Susie?" I whisper, inching closer toward her. "Susie, it's all right..."

She moves her hair out of her eyes with a small forefinger and her eyes are bloodshot, red, murderous, an imitation of David's. Another growl issues from between her exposed fangs and before I can register what is happening, she scampers toward me, her teeth plunging into my neck and the pain is excruciating.

I scream...

I wake up with a start, my body trembling.

I pull the covers away from me, wrapping my arms around my knees instead for warmth. I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to believe anything. My mother couldn't be dead; she couldn't have killed herself because of our absence. And Susie, Susie couldn't be one of them...

The very thought of vampires – I shiver at the term – existing among the good people of Santa Carla seemed surreal to me. The fact that I was sleeping in their lair, was another thing that I just couldn't seem to grasp. Surely vampires were only mythological, something that didn't truly exist?

I couldn't even wrap my head around it when David explained it to me after scaring me to death last night...

"Remember what happened to that kid back at your house?" I had nodded and then David continued, "You saw what we did, and now you know what Susie does."

I shuddered as my mind dredged up unpleasant images of poor Jeremy, his face when the boys were attacking him, the blood... I couldn't imagine Susie doing that to anyone. She was just a little girl, after all. She couldn't possibly understand what's going on or the changes she would be going through right now.

"She'd never -" I whispered in frustration, not wanting to believe it.

"Want to bet on it?" Paul said laughing, before slipping an unlit cigarette between his lips and cupping his hands together, lighting the end with a match.

But wasn't that all the more reason for Susie to do it? If she was too young to comprehend the pain she was inflicting on the people around her, the people that David beckoned her and cajoled her into hurting... No, I'd said firmly to myself. It didn't mean she was a killer, a monster – like David - if she did it without really knowing the consequences of the actions she was making.

After seeing her play Simon Says with David in the bar, how she so willingly obeyed his commands and went along with it, would she really surrender and give in _that_ easily? Would she really be capable of hurting another human being so cruelly like David and the others could?

It upset me that I didn't know the answer...

It upset me that I didn't know for certain if David was lying or not – about Susie and vampires, and my mother's suicide – everything...

The one thing that stuck with me throughout the night was what Susie had said, about someone named Max. Who was this Max, who David apparently said to Susie was our new father now? I wondered what he looked like, if he was as frightening as David.

Sunlight is leaking through the crack in the cave and I found that today I longed to be by myself, to fill my lungs with the refreshing, sunny morning air and bathe in the peaceful knowledge that I wouldn't have to face the boys for another eight hours, at the very least. I wanted to clear my head of all of these unanswered questions but, most of all; I wanted to meet this Max man. I wanted to know _why_ he chose Susie, what part he had to play with David and the boys... Still, for now I would have to settle with the fact that I couldn't know right now.

I climb out of the bed, the springs squeaking loudly as I do and then soon I am outside of the cave, the sun warm and soothing against my skin, the rocks on the beach clacking together with every step. I stare out at the water as I walk.

On the Boardwalk, there aren't many people wandering around at this time of the morning and I stand by the railings for a long moment, enjoying the warm sun. A man with black rimmed-glasses smiles warmly at me as he passes, a white, sandy-colored dog loping behind him on its leash, its furry head bowed and sniffing the pavement for leftover scraps of food.

"Thorn, come on, boy," the man calls and the dog scampers off over to his owner.

I start walking again slowly down the Boardwalk in the direction the man went, pausing as I see the doors of the old record store opening and eager customers beginning to flock their way in. I pause for a moment, conflicted. I think about going into the record store, trying to find those young boys from a few nights ago, who clearly seemed informed of vampires. But, then again, I didn't know if they only believed in the fabricated kind of vampires that you found in the comic books...

Making up my mind, I stroll slowly over to the record store, the rock music from the jukebox resounding wonderfully in my ears. A few customers are rummaging through the bins, their heads bopping happily along with the beat. I scan the room, feeling relieved as I see the boy with the red bandana, the one who had given Alex, Patrick's brother, the comic book on vampires. Surely they knew a lot about vampires then, right?

"You looking for a Punk record or something?" He asks when I nervously approach him. I realize he's clearly mistaken me for Alex's older sister or something of the sort. He obviously remembers me from before.

I shake my head. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you, if that's all right?" The other young boy from over the counter stares at me, glowering. It starts to make me feel uneasy. "You seem like someone who knows a lot about vampires, right?" I add, hopefully.

The boy wearing the red bandana looks distracted, preoccupied with unpacking a box and I contemplate maybe giving up, but then the boy over the counter says, "We pride ourselves on being the best experts on the vampires of Santa Carla." I glance over to find him no longer glowering, but eyeing me suspiciously. "What's it to you?" he asks, stepping out from the counter and clasping his hands together in a very serious manner.

"Well," I begin nervously, not knowing if they will take me seriously or not, "I'm kind of living with a house full of vampires..." I've seemed to capture the boy with bandanas attention now and he finally disregards unpacking the boxes, cocking his head to the side, listening. "And before you think I'm making this up, just hear me out here..." I plead.

The boy with the red bandana sighs loudly before finally swivelling around to face me. "What do you want to know?" he asks in that very deep, unnatural voice of his. "Alan and I are sort of Rambo slayers of the bloodsucker kind." He gestures toward the boy next to him with a hand, then to himself. "I'm Edgar."

Knowing their names, it placates me in an odd way.

"Well, how do you know if someone's a vampire?" I ask after a moment.

Alan looks at Edgar and shrugs. "Easy." He turns to look at me directly, his expression grim. "Do they sleep all day and are awake all night?"

I think it through for a moment. Susie certainly has changed sleeping patterns since staying with the boys. "Yes," I answer after a moment.

Edgar moves to the side of the counter, bending down and picking up another box. He heaves it onto the counter before joining in enthusiastically. "Are they afraid of sunlight?" he asks.

This question baffles me and I am quiet for a moment, contemplating. I'd never seen Susie's reaction to being directly under the sunlight before. I'd never seen Marko, Paul, Dwayne or David's reaction for that matter, either. I wondered idly what would happen if they did – would they be terrified? Would it burn them or turn them to ash?

"I-I think so..." I say at last, frowning.

Alan nods his head fervently. "Then yes, they are bloodsuckers all right."

It didn't seem to add up at all. I always presumed vampires were something you read in horror comics...

"Do they have a rotten temper lately?" Edgar asks suddenly, and I stare at him blankly for a moment.

I hesitate. "No." Susie didn't seem any different in that area. "Is it common for vampires to have a rotten temper?"

Alan and Edgar both laugh, somehow not humorously. "You betcha," they both say in unison.

I nod, feeling oddly relieved by this knowledge. "That certainly explains why David is so ill-humoured..." I say, without really thinking of the consequences.

Edgar and Alan look confused. "Who?"

"Never mind." I turn away from them, thinking. Perhaps it was nothing personal then, the way David acted toward me? Maybe it was just something that came natural to vampires, just like my hatred of him... I have a sudden idea. "What's something that prevents a vampire from attacking you?"

But Edgar answered too quickly. "That's easy. You take a few gloves of garlic, tuck it under your shirt, and it'll ward him away for good..."

"Garlic?" I enquire, intrigued now. "Why garlic?"

"It's simple," Edgar says, shrugging. He starts unpacking one of the boxes, removing some of the new glossy records. "Garlic reeks as bad as the vampire himself. It'll deter him from feasting his fangs on you and, let's face it, if you're in company of vampires often; you're practically a wet tampon waiting to be sucked..."

I consider. "And it really works?" I ask quietly.

"Of course," Edgar booms, a little louder than necessary. A few customers look in our direction, inquisitively. He leans closer toward me, lowering his voice. "It's an old trick in the book used centuries ago..."

Garlic? Hmm.

"How many bloodsuckers are we talking here?" Alan asks after a moment of silence, and I turn to look at him.

"Four or five."

They both exchange a look, raising their eyebrows, incredulous. "Holy shit," Edgar says breathlessly, shaking his head.

I'm suddenly nervous at their reaction. "What?" I ask, chewing on a hangnail.

Edgar snorts derisively, turning his head back to his work and starting to pile up the records alphabetically. "That's a shitload of garlic," he says in a hushed, hoarse whisper.

"Well, do you know where I can buy a 'shitload' of garlic from?" I ask, my voice trembling for some reason.

Edgar turns his face back to mine, scared and excited. "There's a little grocery store on the right end of the Boardwalk." I mentally picture the Boardwalk and faintly remember the tiny grocery store where Susie and I had went for supplies before the boys ended up cornering us on their bikes ending our scheme to escape to Florida.

I nod, about to walk out the record store when Alan catches my arm, to my surprise. "Be careful," he says with a note of warning in his voice. He looks genuinely worried and it startles me.

Careful of what?

If garlic was the only solution to keep David away from Susie and me, to keep him from hurting me, then I would gladly risk anything. My body feels lighter, as though a heavy weight that has been bearing me down has been lifted, when I walk into the grocery store.

I start preparing to put my plan into action...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is very much appreciated, of course... :)


	9. Rolling In On A Burning Tire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby tries to keep her plan in mind...

I was in high-spirits as I arrived back at the cave.

I was ready, prepared for what I would have to be facing in order to keep David away. But what I wasn't prepared for, was another woman – who I could only assume was a human with a beating heart and thumping pulse, just like me – with David in the cave that was becoming my home.

Or a casualty right before my very own eyes more like it...

Someone emits high-pitched giggles, a very feminine, girlish sound, and I knew it wasn't Susie who was making such noises. I rounded around the corner, apprehensively and my heart stops for one single second at the sight. A woman. David was with a red-headed woman, whispering something low and gruff into her ear, something only she could hear, and it was subsequently causing her to act like a clucky adoring woman.

The close intimacy between the pair of them took my breath away. I'd never seen David act so... human before. So gentle. I tried to steady my breathing as he lifted all of her long, dangling hair up into his hands, moving it away, exposing the pale clear flesh on her neck. She emitted another high-pitched giggle as he pressed his mouth just below the area of her earlobe. I felt my cheeks burning as I witnessed the sight, feeling ashamed and automatically fascinated at the very same time.

I couldn't seem to move. I was waiting, motionless, there in the shadows, anticipating what would come next between the pair. I averted my eyes, down at the plastic grocery bag of garlic cloves, and instantly wished I could have disposed of it right now... What was I doing? Was I really trying to do the logical thing here in using garlic to keep David away from Susie and me? My conflicted thoughts were interrupted when I heard something peculiar, a noise that seemed an indication that this intimacy between David and the woman wasn't as gentle and loving as it seemed.

Her giggles of desire and arousal didn't seem to come anymore. Instead there were low squeals, a deep groaning sound of agony from the very back of her throat. A moment later, a blood-curdling growl ripped through David, fear and terror pulsating through my veins at the sound of it. What was going on? What was David doing to her? Was he hurting the poor woman now?

I made the mistake of sneaking a peek and the sight left my stomach reeling in disgust. The exposed flesh on her neck was ripped apart, red and entrails everywhere. She was now lying headfirst on the bed where I so often slept in, her skin abnormally pale. David was... nowhere to be seen. Where was David now?

And the woman... was she... dead?

"So nice of you to join us," someone breathes in my ear and my heart jumped in my throat as I recognized that icy, low voice.

David.

_Oh my God._

Sobs were threatening to break through my chest, shaking me. I swallowed hard as I turned on my side and found myself suddenly face to face with David himself. I wanted to move away from him, but found I couldn't. My whole body was numb at the sight of him; there was no more doubting or putting off what David was, that was for certain...

He truly was... a vampire. The woman dead and drained on the bed was a sure-fire sign of that...

A thin stream of blood was dribbling down his chin like a teardrop and he made a loud sniffing noise before sedately raising his arm. He shielded his face for a moment as he wiped the blood and muck off his chin with the sleeve of his black coat, looking more intimidating than ever before.

"W-where's Susie?" I asked, shying away from his dark gaze, my voice small and wobbly.

Suddenly, and without warning, David's hand struck out and I couldn't help but recoil. He pressed his hand lightly against the skin of my neck and throat and I knew he would have felt my pulse thudding madly in fear against his fingertips. "If you wanna know where Susie is, you better come with me now," he only said before letting me go at last.

* * *

So here he was, Max, my so-called new father, who I had been quite literally dying to meet...

I looked at this Max man and every image I ever had of him in the past twenty-four hours flew straight out the window.

I thought Max would be as young and brazen as David and the other boys.

He wasn't.

He looked in his early forties or fifties, at the very most.

I thought he'd be more frightening than David.

He wasn't, and it was then that I realized no one could ever possibly be more imposing and cruel as David.

I thought he looked like a weakling, someone frail compared to the boys yet he had a strange sense of strength about him. A kind of tilt to the head when he looked at me. He looked like an intellectual and so sure of himself, with black-rimmed glasses and a warm, inviting smile on his face despite the fact he hadn't met me once before in his entire life. When I met his gaze and looked into his eyes, I couldn't help but search for some kind of resemblance there in them that made him similar to the other boys. A dark, reddish, malevolent glint to them. But there was nothing there.

He clasped his hands together as he regarded me with eagerness. "Now, you must be Ruby?"

He had a deep articulate voice and his head tilted even more and I slowly began to recognize he was enjoying my ongoing sense of discomfort in his presence.

Before I could even muster up the energy to give him a simple nod or "Yes, hello," in response, a loud clutter of noise came from in one of the rooms of his house. He silently ushered me in with a simple whisk of his hand before marching into the largest room, which I could tell was the kitchen, to see what the ruckus was all about.

I followed slowly after him, peeking around the corner in the hallway apprehensively. I was so stunned about the whole affair; I couldn't believe that now I was in the house of the very same man who was apparently to be our new father – or so David assumed. To be in such close quarters with not only David, and Marko, and Paul, and Dwayne – who were or were not vampires, I still wasn't certain – and then standing so close to _this_ man who inevitably changed mine and my little sisters life, it was mind-blowing...

Finding the source of the noise, the man folded his arms across his chest, with a grim expression on his face, looking over at the four boys and Susie, who was so little she barely seemed included in his unspoken reprimand. It was unbelievable; the undeniable power he seemed to hold over the boys. Well, almost all of them. Marko, Dwayne and Paul looked like three lost, frightened, small little boys who were getting grounded by their high-esteemed paternal figure, while David seemed unsurprisingly impassive, cool about the whole thing.

Glasses have all spilled out and shattered on the gray linoleum kitchen floor and the wooden cabinet that I assumed were holding them was turned on its side. It appeared that Marko and Paul were having some kind of boisterous wrestling match by the look of things. "It was Paul-" Marko rumbles nervously at the foreboding expression on his seemingly father-like figures face. Paul looks offended. "Was not," he says quietly.

This Max man ignores them. He crouches down and inspects the bits of crockery before turning to face me. "Take it from a man who's had a lifetime of experience," he tells me very sternly as he began collecting the pieces and shards of crockery with his fingers. "Never invite these wild boys into your home unless you're expecting total and utter chaos." He catches Marko smiling widely behind his back and frowns at him. "Oh, you silly boy," he says very seriously. "What on earth have you broken now?"

Things seemed to quieten down after that. Max ushered the boys sternly into the dining room and I took the moment to grab tight hold of Susie's hand, pulling her next to me. She didn't seem to understand what was going on or showed any indication of fear in front of this Max man, so I tried to calm myself down in turn. Obviously he was a lot more... civilized than the boys – not so 'wild' as he called them.

He seemed wary as he returned back into the kitchen to where Susie and I were standing, and I stared at him uneasily, not quite knowing what to do or what to say. "Why don't you girls go make yourselves comfortable in the dining room with my boys and I'll fetch you all a drink," he said amiably, giving me a quick strained smile, before turning his back on me, preoccupied with something.

I hesitated for a moment, apprehensive, observing the kitchen and the chaos that the boys had created before pulling Susie along with me down the hallway. The first face I met in the dining room wasn't a very friendly one; David.

It was obvious he didn't enjoy the prospect of having me in the same room as him. I gave him a small smile. His slate blue eyes took all of me in, but he didn't return it. It wasn't that I no longer despised him for what he had said about my mother - and the simultaneously haunting awareness that I still wasn't certain if she was _alive_ or not - but it was the fact that I was almost thrilled; thrilled that I seemed to be the only one to get on David's nerves the most. It was as if I relished it now almost...

"Can I help you with anything?" he asks in a dry tone as I squeeze in past him.

"No," I snarl, a little more viciously than intended. "I think you've done enough already..."

"Yeah, well, let's just hope you don't end up like her."

I stood still for a moment, frozen at his unexpected harsh words. That stung. A piece inside of me was instantly filled with inconsolable loss.

I knew instantly who he was referring to...

The woman who I had just witnessed him murder so viciously tonight.

Something bitter pulsated through my veins. I considered turning around, giving him a little piece of what's on my mind, an impulsive reaction. I'd never felt such things before about another, yet with David I felt almost as if I could contemplate murder. It frightened me yet I was automatically placated by the remembrance of the garlic I bought and the plans...

I was thankful for the much needed distraction and intervention as Max came into the room a moment later with drinks on a tray, and all the glasses rattled loudly as he set it on the table beside him. "Look at my delightful family," he announced with a high-pitched, cheery laugh as he sat into the leather armchair closest by the fireplace, watching, smiling proudly, as the boys all rushed over to get their glasses like a pack of underfed dogs finding scraps of leftover food and desiring nothing more than to scarf it messily, greedily, down their throats.

"Where are your manners, boys?" Max scolded, but the boys hardly paid him any attention. "Ladies first, _always_ remember that..."

I leant down slowly, wondering what the fuss was all about. There was something red, a thick liquid in the glass. It didn't look very appetising at all. It could almost pass as red wine, but something told me it was something more than just wine... A sickening shudder passed through me when I looked down at Susie. She was up on tiptoes, her hands outstretched, and I could tell she was eager for a glass of the red liquid.

Max passed a glass generously down to her and she blinked at him impassively for a moment before raising the rim eagerly to her lips. I looked over my shoulder to discover Marko looking directly at me as he took a slurped sip from his glass; I wrung my hands nervously underneath his gaze and he smiled his vast smile, some of the shiny, red liquid bubbling through his parted lips and running underneath his chin. There was something animalistic in the way the boys drunk from their glasses. I couldn't place what it was exactly that seemed so, but it made me shudder uncontrollably.

"Ruby, darling..." Max began, and when I looked back over at him, he was perched on the very end of his chair, staring right at me, frowning earnestly. There was something encouraging, tender in his voice. I couldn't possibly understand on earth why. "I see you're not drinking your glass?"

It was more of a suggestion, rather than a command. Like a gentle lovers caress in a late morning slumber to arise.

He could see that I was reluctant to follow his suggestion. "Uh, I'm not thirsty, thank you," I lie.

He looks disappointed. "Oh, dear. You're not?"

"No."

It was then that I realized I had deemed him incorrectly from the very start. I never thought anyone could be as frightening as David, but he was more so in every moment that seemed to pass by. There was something unidentifiable in this Max man that gave me the creeps. Perhaps he kept it hidden better than David did? All I knew was that simply only by looking at me, he was almost goading me on, pushing me into picking up that cup and draining that unknown liquid down my throat.

He raised an eyebrow and looked at someone behind me. "Very well. This seems quite the unfortunate tragedy," he muttered under his breath with a shaky chuckle. "Uh, David?" So it was David he was talking to? All I could register was that by the look on Max's face, he looked abashed about something. "I... I thought you said that the girl had already joined us?"

I couldn't hear David's response, but all I saw was the immediate flicker of understanding on Max's face.

"Ah, of course," he spoke through the silence. "The other girl. She wasn't as reluctant, I see. But, given her age, of course..." He waves his hand vaguely, thinking something through.

When I turned around to look at David's face, all the little hairs on the back of my neck and arms rose. He was standing right behind me, looming over me. And then his face was in my entire world, blocking everything else out. "The induction's over, Ruby," he says, a chilling stream of air ricocheting against my cheek as he said the words, sending goose bumps all over. "Time to join the club."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, as per usual, very much appreciated, of course... :)


	10. Worse than being just any kind of human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby learns that one cannot blame a vampire for being a vampire any more than they can blame a human for being human...

They all looked at me, goading, prodding, poking, waiting...

"I-I'm sorry..." I wasn't entirely certain what I was apologizing for, but it seemed like the right thing to do. "I'm sorry, but I can't do that..." The words came fast, stumbling out of my mouth. "At least not right now."

Max seemed more accepting of my apology than the others. He nodded his head and smiled warmly. "In all due time, my girl," he said gently, understandingly.

Marko actually looked disappointed, for reasons unknown to me. Did he actually want me to be a part of their peculiar family? Paul was already jumping in for seconds, snatching the last lone glass of the thick red liquid from the table – the glass that should have been mine – before gulping it down while Dwayne looked on quietly. David just stood there, regarding me coldly with his arms crossed.

And then he spoke. "You don't want to be one of us, but then you don't wanna be what Susie isn't..."

Max darted him a disapproving look. "David, will you let the poor girl be?" he asks urgently. "She's been put under enough pressure as it is. She'll join us soon enough..." A bizarre surge of warmth floods through me at Max's unyielding compassion, but David remains clearly unconvinced.

I gasp and could only produce a ridiculous yelp as I was slammed against the opposite wall from where I stood. His body was pressed tightly against mine and his breath was cold, unnerving, against my cheek and I try to turn my head away as he hisses in rage: "You can't blame a vampire for being a vampire no more than you can blame a human for being a human..." I flinch as one of his fingers touches the end of my nose, and he traces it lightly across the bridge and over my brows. His fingers were icy cold, and he was too close for comfort, his startling overwhelming presence the only thing left in my dark, gloomy world.

"But one of us, like you, mingling with another blood bag, betraying your own, you're worse than just being any kind of human, so here's what I'm going to do..." He continues icily as he slips in closer, and I squeeze my eyes shut tightly at his words. "I'm gonna leave you there in that cave with that pretty little dolls body lying over there on that bed, and first it'll be the bugs – the maggots - eating at her for a day or two..."

At his unpleasant words, my mind subconsciously dredged up the horrifying images that came along with it. The poor woman, the pale flesh on her neck ripped apart, the entrails everywhere as she lay there unmoving, not breathing, as dead as anything... My stomach reeled in disgust and I found myself dying to get away from David. Only I couldn't seem to move. I felt numb.

"And then the sun's going to be cooking her, and then them animals, they're going to pick up her stink - they'll come looking for something to eat..." He then laughs shakily, his chilling breath tickling my forehead and making me tremble uncontrollably. "Who knows?" He says in a much brighter, softer tone. "They might even make a good meal out of _you_ -"

Someone clears their throat loudly. I feel David shift beside me, distancing himself from me. But he wasn't done with his talking yet...

"So, when you see that boy again..." He finishes in a quick, hushed whisper, as though he knew he didn't have much time left to say it, " which I know is inevitable, by the way, because I know you're gonna do it sooner or later - that's what you're gonna have to expect..."

"David, my boy?" It was Max. He sounded hysterical, on the verge of laughter.

Thankfully I didn't hear much else from David. But I kept my eyes tightly shut. I tried to still my mind, to erase all the images that came along with his words, with his threat. Then I realized I didn't even know who David was talking about. What boy? Who was this boy he was speaking of – this 'blood bag' that he mentioned? I replay this whole incident in my head for a moment, thinking, wondering what it was that David was saying and what he meant. All it did was give me new numerous reasons as to why I was ultimately terrified of him...

"This is bullshit," I hear him suddenly say, louder than necessary. "She doesn't want to be one of us." It was obvious he was talking to the other boys now. "Come on boys, let's go..." I hear him moving around, the loud trudging of his boots against the hardwood floor, and then there was a peaceful, treacherous silence in the room, cajoling me into a quick and easy calm. He was gone.

I slowly open my eyes.

And he _was_ gone. All of them were – even Susie, who was what I least expected to be. All, except Max.

He was a few feet away from me. He has the strangest expression on his face, as though he is acutely embarrassed about the whole thing between me and David. Then he smiles. It looks pitifully forced. "Don't mind David, my girl," he says gently, clasping his hands together. "You may still be human for now, but we can work with this..." I didn't understand what he saying, but then I did, just like that...

* * *

"Now, you'll feel just the lightest of pinches as the syringe breaks through the skin..." Max explains, as I sit carefully on the leather sofa. "Two small extractions are all that is necessary, my girl."

I try to pick my words with care. "A-are you like the boys?" But my curiosity got the better of me. "Do you do what they do to people as well when they feed? _Kill_ them, I mean..."

I immediately feel horrible for asking when I see the look of disappointment on Max's face. "Of course not, you silly girl!" He closes his eyes, whispers, "I'm not as flamboyant as the boys with my feeding, but that comes with age..." He shakes his head. "No, just an extraction of human blood is all I need, although I don't get as many visitors as I used to..."

"I couldn't imagine why," I mumble quietly. But, in a way, I could.

Max seemed like the kind of person you took a while to warm to. And, in a way, I found I was willing to endure anything just to simply be in his company for an hour longer or two. With the way David was tonight, so hostile, I desired nothing more than to never return to them. But then there was Susie... I couldn't live without her.

At least, I wouldn't dare let myself live without her. I could never leave her alone in the company of the boys. It was too late now, since her fate had already been decided before she – or even I - got a say in it. I felt I must have been the worst sister in the world; I realized I should have protected her from the worst person imaginable; David, and yet I failed to do so.

Guilt and self-pity flooded through me as though I had been lethally injected with it. But now wasn't quite the time to start feeling sorry for myself, and for the predicament I was in...

Conflicted with all of my thoughts, I was beginning to forget Max was moving around me, talking.

"I say it all the time, and I'll say it once again: boys need a maternal figure or else they'll walk all over you," I heard him speaking firmly, but I wasn't certain if he was talking to me or not. He then starts rolling my sleeve up to my elbow and have to draw my eyes away, not feeling much like looking at what he would be doing to me and my blood. I go to look outside the window, but realize all the blinds are shut. It must be early morning hours anyhow, I figured, considering Susie and the boys were out. "After all, a woman's love and nurturing is more powerful than anything known to mankind..." I hear Max finish with his rambling and my heart surges as I catch sight of the quite large syringe he is holding in his hand.

I try to distract myself, will my mind to think of other things as I feel the slight prickling sensation of the syringe penetrating the skin of my arm. I didn't quite know what to think anymore. In a way, the prospect of having a large family, a 'delightful' family, as Max had described it, was both baffling and exciting to me.

To be included in such a tight knit, permanent, protective family, it seemed like the most wonderful thing.

But what changes would I have to endure to become what Susie or David, or Marko, Dwayne, and Paul are?

I was certain, almost positive, that this change was the very reason why David is the way that he is... Edgar and Alan had illustrated very clearly to me that vampires become ill-humoured and temperamental, and I didn't want to be like that at all. Plus the added fact that I might have to harm a human being in order to keep my vitality up, it was a sickening notion. I didn't think I could ever actually do that, let myself do something so inhumane and unnatural...

I felt Max remove the needle from my arm, interrupting me from my thoughts, as he spoke. "I was hoping you, as a young girl their age, would be able to tame my four turbulent sons - perhaps even get together with one of them - but it seems you are still fighting, Ruby..."

I pressed my fingers against the sore, stinging spot on my arm where the needle had went in as Max stood and I saw he was holding a long vial of my blood in his hands. Had he really extracted that much out? What on earth did he need my blood for? What would he be doing with it in the meantime?

He sighs loudly, wistfully, before continuing. "Still fighting to join our family... It's very unpleasant given the way I saw you outside my rental store on the Boardwalk. How you reacted so motherly toward that young man, wiping away the remains of the food on his mouth."

I knew he was talking about Patrick, and my stomach clenched at the sudden realization of having an unknown witness lurking around and watching us. Remembering what happened on the Boardwalk with Patrick, it was a deed that astounded me myself. I felt my cheeks burning, as though they were being licked by flames. I still didn't quite know the reasons as to what possessed me to automatically wipe Patrick's mouth with the napkin...

Then I remembered David's harsh words tonight about a boy... Could it have been Patrick he was talking about all along? Surely it couldn't be... How would he know for certain if I was to see Patrick again? It didn't make any sense.

Max smiles warmly at something, a faraway and distant look in his eyes. Then he frowns earnestly as he meets my gaze again, shaking his head, looking so deeply troubled that it unnerved me. "I couldn't understand it, Ruby. Why _that_ young man and not one of my boys?" He suddenly looks offended. "Are they not vibrant or good enough for your liking?"

His blatant number of questions startled me and I found I couldn't answer them even if I tried. I didn't even know where to begin... All I knew was that there was something unpalatable about the boys; David in particular, that made me feel guarded around them. It wasn't so much that I felt distrusting of Marko, Dwayne, or Paul even, but David, he was another matter altogether... And with reason, after the way he was with me tonight.

"Now, I know this may come as quite a surprise for you," Max begins when I don't say anything, his face tilted down at me with a small knowing smile. "But David was the one who proposed accepting you two girls into the family. It was all his idea and I had to concur..." I stare at him for a moment, wide-eyed, skeptical, and Max chuckles shakily at my expression.

I couldn't imagine it being David's idea at all. Out of all four of the boys, David appeared to be the only one who loathed the very thought of me intruding in on their happy clan... He couldn't even stand being in the same room as me - that was painfully obvious. Perhaps Max was lying right to my face to make this whole ordeal easier on me? The very thought was inconceivable.

I knew better than to believe it.

After all, I wasn't _that_ naive...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, of course, very much appreciated, as usual...


	11. Rebel Rebel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby realizes a few things...

I couldn't bear the thought of returning back to the boys.

I knew that once I did, I would most likely end up in tears once I saw David after what happened tonight.

As I reach the lights across from the Boardwalk, waiting to cross the road, I caught sight of a bunch of boys on their bikes. For a moment I assumed it was Marko and David and the boys, but then as I edged closer, I realized it wasn't them; these boys looked in their early thirties, in their leather clad get-up, chains, and motorcycle boots. They were sitting perched on their bikes, drinking and carrying on. I realized they were staring right at me. I suddenly feel strangely exposed, unprotected, as though I was just another one of those peculiar girls who walked around after midnight searching for trouble.

I could tell they assumed that, too...

I think I heard one of them call out 'Show us your legs' among other things as I crossed the road. My face burnt with embarrassment. But I was certain, almost positive, that this was one of things David would have loved happening to me. I felt as though the whole world was watching me in that instance and I couldn't hide behind a car or a window, or one of the boys even. I immediately start to regret not accepting Max's offer to give me a lift.

I noticed a middle-aged couple in a car staring as they stopped at the light to let me walk. I imagined them to be saying things like 'Thank goodness that's not our daughter crossing the road in the middle of the night.'

"Hey, honey," I hear one of the bikers say in a sing-song voice, leaning against his bike. "You looking for a ride?"

_No, please leave me alone in peace!_ I think, but don't say out loud.

I look past him and his gang of friends as I go to walk past them, but then he leans off his bike and steps directly in my path, giving me no choice but to look at him.

Meeting his gaze had to be my biggest mistake right then. I knew there was no turning back...

I could see he was very tall and well-built, and I knew I was no match for him physically. There was no chance in defending myself against him if he chose to hurt me.

A sudden impulse makes me spit at him. Something I had never done in my entire life, but at that moment I didn't care about how indecent and unladylike it probably was for a girl to do. It was the only thing I thought I could do to protect myself. He grabs me by the front of my blouse and I felt the bile rise up in my throat.

Before I knew what was happening he was pulled away from me and I wondered for a second where such strength had came from. But it wasn't just any helpful stranger that was now bashing this man's face against the ground.

It was David...

Being an eyewitness to such violence is a truly horrible experience. Almost second to witnessing David murdering that woman so viciously in the cave earlier. It's not like in a movie where it's portrayed as noble and gallant and romantic, even – although David's actions probably were intended in that nature – but it was savage and bloody. I saw blood on David's fists and on the man's face and I never thought that I would possibly see anything so ugly ever again.

"David, please stop it now." I started sobbing and while I knew it was pathetic of me, David still didn't seem to want to stop beating on the man.

"David, cool it, man!" I hear Marko's voice say shakily and then thankfully he intervened, grabbing David's arm and pulling him away.

I hear David pant and swear, and then I realized the other boys were there now, Paul and Dwayne, and the other gang of bikers, who were threatening each other over their friend's now bloody and beaten body, all at David's own doing.

The beaten biker slides up against the pavement, doubled up. I watch, my veins pulsating in fear as one of his friends gives up on threatening Paul and Dwayne, and stoops down low on his knees to help lift up his friend up. The biker spits out a tooth into his own lap.

"Come on, bud." Paul grabs Dwayne and pushes him toward David, who is now watching the gang of bikers with such hostility on his face that it shook me.

It was then that I saw Susie was standing right near him, clutching fistfuls of his black coat with her hands and clinging on for dear life, looking so tiny and scared and out of place, severely frightened about what she had just witnessed. She didn't need to see any of that...

Marko came and stood right beside me. "Come on, little sister," he says quietly, and when I turn to look at his face, I am startled to see him smiling despite what had just happened. He puts his arm around me, leading me in the direction toward where the other boys and David were already walking.

I had to try breathe slowly and carefully to get over the sudden shock of what had just happened. Susie and I seemed to be the only ones who had trouble attempting to absorb what had just happened just now; I assumed then that it was something that happened a lot when you were in the company of the boys and that it was something you would have to soon learn to expect.

Paul bursts out laughing. "Well, that was a rocking fun time, wasn't it, pal?" I hear him ask Dwayne, flinging his arm around his shoulder boisterously.

I couldn't believe it, and it was all because of my own foolishness; I should have accepted Max's ride, then perhaps the whole incident would have turned out differently... or wouldn't have had to happen at all. I replayed the situation in my head once, twice, looking for different outcomes as to how better it could have gone.

But I was mostly afraid of what I would see when I looked at David's face. Would he blame me for all of this? I couldn't tell if he was angry or not, but there was a certain way to how he walked, something different, something catching...

I caught sight of his face as he swivelled around to face Paul on the Boardwalk, leaning against the railings, his expression grim. Then he produced a cigarette from his pocket and I quickly avert my eyes, staring down at my shoes. I didn't quite enjoy the thought of admitting defeat. Perhaps I was so stubborn that the prospect was sickening, but it had to be done...

"I-I'm sorry," I manage in a wobbly voice, speaking mainly to David. It's not that I saw him now as my protector or anything; I just felt it was right thing to do, to apologize for all the commotion I'd caused. "It was my fault. I shouldn't have been so stupid as to think I would be safe on my own..."

There was a moment of silence, and then I thought I heard David snort derisively. "Yeah, well, don't flatter yourself, Ruby," he replies patronizingly, sounding calmer than I expected he would. He adds, in a much brighter tone, "We could have taken on the whole of Santa Carla, couldn't we boys?"

Paul starts with his high-pitched laughter again, waving a hand in the air dismissively. "We would've won, too," he tells me, and I peek up to see him grinning at me proudly.

I shake my head. Of course, I didn't expect Paul to take it so seriously. For the very short amount of time I'd spent with him, I realized he didn't seem to care much about what went on or the consequences of such things. He just did them, and relished these treacherously exciting, spontaneous moments. And oddly enough, I found I wouldn't want him any other way...

But then I was once again suddenly conflicted; I didn't seem to know what to think anymore. With David, everyone else was telling me one thing – Max especially, who admitted that it was in fact _David_ who had suggested Susie and _me_ to join their happy family all along – yet his actions and words when around me were something different entirely. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around it.

I was positive he absolutely loathed the very ground I walked on, yet tonight I had seen and experienced an entirely different side to him. Could it be possible that Max's word had been true and heartfelt? It didn't seem so. But with every unnerving moment that seemed to pass by, I was beginning to question everything regarding David's disgust in me.

He had helped me tonight. There was no denying that, and it wasn't as if I didn't feel thankful for it.

Who knows? If it wasn't for him I would have possibly been dead now.

But, because of him, I wasn't.

Obviously he didn't despise me too much then. That very thought held my life in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, as usual, very much appreciated, of course... :)


	12. Killer Mood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby learns the meaning of the phrase “killer mood”...

"Appetizer?" David offers, holding out his cigarette to me.

Perhaps I was feeling a little too daring and infallible tonight so I took it from him without hesitation. I've never smoked before in my entire life so I felt self-conscious smoking in front of them. They all watched me as I put the cigarette between my lips, taking a deep drag. It was a little too much. The smoke I had inhaled scratched and tickled the back of my throat and I coughed and spluttered, much to my embarrassment. David's eyes were fixed on me and I thought I caught him smirking before quickly turning his head in the other direction.

My insides and lungs feel as if they have suddenly been beaten. "I don't see how you can all smoke so much without it hurting your lungs..."

I wipe my mouth and then start coughing again, grimacing. _How graceful and ladylike,_ I think sarcastically. But considering what I had been through tonight, what with spitting on that biker, I was practically breaking all of my mother's rules anyway...

The lights of the Boardwalk suddenly seem more magnified, brighter, flickering and glaring painfully into my line of eyesight. I blink several times, and then wipe my eyes with the sleeve of my jacket quickly. Suddenly it feels as if I am riding on a boat pitching high seas, rocking back and forth against the waves.

_What the hell?_

"My God. That wasn't a regular cigarette, was it?" Paul laughs and shakes his head violently before taking the cigarette off me. He studies the end, and then takes a deep drag himself. He was so much more dignified about it – no coughing or spluttering came from him at all.

"No, no." David says softly, humour in his tone. "It's just the finest doobie Santa Carla has to offer..."

I gape at him incredulously. Perfect. Just _perfect_.

Marko smiles and reaches out to me, putting an arm around my shoulder. "Relax girl, you're with us."

How can I relax? I've never smoked any illegal substance before. "I know," I only say quietly, leaning into him.

"All right, boys," David says. "Let's go."

I watch as Dwayne lifts Susie onto the back of his bike and she wraps her little arms around his waist, clinging onto him for dear life. I stop in embarrassment and shame as David sits perched on the very end of his bike, not sure what to say or whether to hop on next to him or not.

"I can ride with Marko," I volunteer weakly, swallowing hard.

I wonder what he must see in my expression because he looks at me with utter confusion, his eyebrows raised. "Fine," he says shrugging and I realized he looked quite wounded for some reason as he stepped down on the peddle of his bike.

 _What can it hurt?_ I wonder desperately as the engine comes to life, an ear-deafening roar. _Ten minutes of sitting close to David at the very least shouldn't kill me..._ I pull the sleeves of my jacket down to my wrists and climbed onto his bike, self-consciously.

"You all ready?"

I screamed. I wasn't exactly sure why I was screaming, but I just still couldn't bring myself to trust David enough. It was a long piercing scream in his ear from the Boardwalk all the way through to the highway. I realized it felt so strange, being in such close proximity to David in this way. I supposed it was something you never got used to... I tried to arch my back and sit up straighter on the seat so that I wouldn't be leaning on him, but was unsuccessful.

It was only when we were about a minute and a half away from the cave that I started to enjoy myself. But my eyes smarted from the biting wind and the skin of my cheeks felt tight, not to mention my throat was severely beginning to hurt from the smoke I had inhaled in from the cigarette – or joint, which would have probably been the more correct choice of the word - and especially all of the screaming.

The sky was beginning to become overcast, a dim white light leaking in through the heavy, grey clouds and I was genuinely startled as David started howling at the top of his lungs. It seemed he was enjoying himself, too, to my absolute surprise. I almost laughed loudly at his hysterics.

As he slowed the bike down to a quick stop, I pulled away from him quickly, trying to get off before he did, but when I stood up after holding the end of the bike with my hands for support, I noticed he was touching his ears discreetly. "Thanks. A hysterical little blood-bag of a girl screamed in my ears and busted my eardrums," he said in an icy voice before climbing off his bike.

_Oops._

I shrug apologetically, feeling so wretched, but then he ignores me. He didn't wait for the other boys to arrive on their bikes; he walked straight into the dark, shadowed opening of the cave and disappeared abruptly out of sight.

When the boys arrived on their bikes, Paul too was touching his ears. "Yikes, somebody drive an early stake through my heart at the sound of _that_!"

"Yeah, chill out," Marko said, smiling widely at me. His smile immediately vanished. "Where's David?" he asks confusedly as he came and stood right next to me. I waited as Dwayne lifted Susie easily off the bike and jumped off his himself before answering.

"I don't know..." I admit miserably. "I think he went down there. He didn't seem very happy..." I wave a hand vaguely toward the opening of the cave and then tense as Paul laughs loudly.

"I don't blame him," he says, shaking his head and smiling wryly. "Girl, you've got a rockin' set of lungs on you - I'll give you that much!"

I feel myself going red at his remark. I hang my head, staring down at my hands. "I-I'm sorry," I say quietly, honestly.

As we enter the cave, I realize everything is a mess. The sheets of the bed are strewn apart, draped long ways against the dusty, dirty floor. The empty alcohol bottles and the few that were resting on the table by the bed, with the candles plugged inside of them, were knocked over on the ground. Shards and cascades of glass were lying right near the bed. But I noted, with relief, the dead woman David had murdered wasn't lying there all bloody and pallid on the bed any longer; he must have moved her...

Paul groans. "What the hell happened, bud?" he whispers to Marko, who shrugs, looking at the mess of their home with unconditional despair.

"I only have a few hunches," Marko says after a moment, peeking at me from behind his shoulder. "David's in one of his killer moods again..."

Paul rolls his eyes. "Now don't you just love that," he says sarcastically. Before I can register what is happening or the reasons as to why this was so funny, the boys burst out laughing; Marko edging slowly toward the bed, picking up the ripped apart sheets, and throwing the bundle of them on the bed, trying to repair of the damage of what was left of their beloved home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, as usual, very much appreciated... :)


	13. Blood

Sleeping was becoming easier than I imagined.

No longer do I wake up, gasping and frightened, reaching out for Susie. I supposed it was because I had finally accepted what has become of her; that she truly was one of them. And that while I was like this, I was nothing like them. Nothing like _her_...

At least not physically, inside.

I sleep all day now. Night is when I am truly awake, when I arise now, with them; the boys.

Having stayed up all night with them, it was in the daytime, the early pale mornings, the sunny afternoons, that I was reduced to this old bed, in this endless slumber that turned my days quickly into nights. But sometimes I can't help pretending, pretending that I am back home sleeping safely in the confines of my own familiar bed, back there to where my mother would come in during the mornings and say hello, then slip out again.

Only I could never quite conjure up the reproduction of my mother. It was horrifying to admit that I _have_ in fact forgotten her, well and truly now. Had Susie done the same thing? Had she forgotten her? Had she forgotten her father as well? And did she see Max in his place?

I woke up shivering, and could tell that at least today it would be different.

I try to cover myself, and then as soon I remember what happened to the bed sheets; they are ripped apart pieces of fabric, tangled around my feet and ankles, the victims of David's 'killer mood' – or so Paul and Marko had enlightened me. My head is pounding, for reasons unknown to me, and my insides feeling sore and beaten.

I wrap my arms gently around my stomach, then realize I'm feeling hungrier unlike anything I'd ever experienced before. Why was I feeling this way, so peckish all of a sudden? Then the answer automatically came to me, the echo of David's thrilling voice replaying through my mind: "It's just the finest doobie Santa Carla has to offer..."

Oh!

I climb slowly off the bed, the springs squeaking as I do so, and then all of a sudden this excruciating amount of pain shoots through me, from one of my toes up to my ankle, and I gasp audibly. I fall sideways back onto the spongy mattress of the bed, chewing the insides of my mouth to prevent a yelp or scream from escaping. _Not that there was even a slightest possibility of waking up Susie or the boys anyway..._

With two trembling hands, I lift my foot up carefully, examining it, trying to find the reasons as to why it would be hurting so much right now. A shard of glass is wedged deep in between the skin on my heel, a small dark red drop of blood spilling out like a teardrop and onto the mattress. I watch with morbid curiosity as the drop of blood spreads slowly against the white sheet, until the whole of the mattress is drenched in blood.

* * *

_What do I need? What do I need?_ I chant it over and over in my head. _Water. I need water!_

Through the cracks high up in the ceiling, I see a bright, faint beam of orange light peeking through and establish it must be near sundown. The air in the cave is filled with warm moisture, stuffy, and I close my eyes, willing myself to think of nothing but the calm quiet surrounding me. I try to breathe slowly and deeply through my nostrils, ignoring the constant throbbing and aching in my foot.

My throat feels parched, dry, and I have difficulty in swallowing against the thick lump in my throat. Water was what I needed the most right now, and _food_...

I try once again to climb slowly off the bed, this time successfully avoiding the shards of glass intersected in the dirt. I look around, once, twice, three times, and then find what I was looking for; there, positioned in the middle of the bedside table, was a dusty bottle. I could tell it was filled with something, an unknown liquid, but then I realized I would have to settle on any kind of liquid right now; it was the closest thing to water I could find...

I hop over to the table, clutching it with both hands for support. Examining it closer, it didn't look like any normal kind of alcohol bottle. Jewels. The light leaking in through the cracks in the ceiling, I noted, seemed to glint off it, and as I reached out a shaking hand and lifted it up into the air, the sun glared off the jewels, ricocheting this way and that way – depending how you held it – and painfully bright into my eyes.

I saw that the liquid level was all the way to the nozzle; obviously the boys hadn't drunken from it yet, for reasons unknown to me. Licking my chapped lips to gain a little moisture, I uncap it and take a swallow.

My stomach clenches at the foreign taste.

It wasn't water.

Was it... _blood?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, as usual, very much appreciated, of course... :) (And just so you know, today is my twenty-eighth birthday... :))


	14. Bleed You Dry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby realizes something, and finally decides to drink from the bottle that the Boys have...

Darkness surrounded me, trapping me, enclosing around me like a cage.

I lean my head against the rock wall, squeezing my eyes tightly shut, my heart pounding loudly in my ears. _Thud, thud, thud_... And then the sound slowly became more distant, until it finally faded, and then there was nothing around me except the darkness again.

And then voices; voices and footsteps intermingled...

"Whoa, bud. Was somebody massacred in here?"

Silence.

"Look over there – there's blood. Think it's Ruby's?"

"Hmm. I don't know Marko." David's dry voice. "Why don't you go taste it and see?"

Laughter. "Ugh, I'm right. Thanks, pal..."

"Ruby?"

_Susie?_ My eyes pop open. I realize four eyes are watching me, observing me, glancing around the room, and then I see her. She runs around the bed to me and throws her arms around my shoulders. And then she sees it – maybe even smells it. _The blood_. Before I can register what is happening, her small body starts twitching. She backs away slowly, her small hands dangling at her sides, and then a low growl issues from her chest.

_No!_

"Marko." It was all David had to say. His voice is low, full of warning.

Marko is immediately at her side, taking firm hold of her arm, dragging her away from me. It was then that I caught sight of her eyes while he was holding her back, keeping her restrained as she reached out for me, her little hands clawing the air; dark, red horrifying irises.

She was ready for a quick and easy kill...

Another growl comes from deep inside her. "Whoa, hold it, little sister," Marko says gently, trying to placate her without success. She strains against the hold he has on her arm, her top lip quivering as she exposes her fangs at me.

If it wasn't for Marko restraining her, I probably would have closed my eyes tightly shut, surrendered to her and to the added pain she would have been inflicting on me. Instead I was there gawking at her, wide-eyed in fear and shock, cowering in the corner like some pathetic little rat, my back pressed against the hard rock wall of the cave, arms shielding me.

I had never seen Susie like that before, only in my nightmares. I never assumed it would be possible to see her like that... It depressed me. It was as if she had forgotten who I was – who she _was_ , in that instance. I wasn't the older sister to her any longer; I wasn't part of her family, just a mindless quick cuisine to feast on.

David gave me a side-long glance, then looked at Marko, whose arms were failing against Susie as she tried to break free of his grasp. He didn't seem to speak; he pointed his unshaven chin out into the opposite direction and I thought I saw Marko smile wickedly. He gave me a little wave before turning and pulling Susie along with him, her feet stumbling and dragging across the ground as she held my gaze, another deep growl ripping through her chest, her fangs slightly even more exposed.

And then they were both gone.

Suddenly the room is very still, quiet, in her absence. Dwayne and Paul stand, frozen, staring down at me. And then they too leave, their boots scratching against the dirt and rocks with every step they took. It was only me and David now.

I think I was finally beginning to understand: while I was like this, to Susie – to _them_ – I was nothing more than food.

And then David came slowly toward me. He kneels down in front of me, and I hold my breath, frightened for what would be coming next. Had he realized then that it was too much difficulty? Would he force me into becoming one of them, the very _thing_ that I hated the most? I try to breathe slowly and deeply to get over the shock as he takes my injured foot between his cold hands.

For a moment I think he is going to pull the shard of glass straight out, and I brace myself for the pain. But what he did next was something I didn't imagine or anticipate from him at all; his eyes held mine for a long moment. There was a darkness in his glazed slate blue eyes that unnerved me. It was almost as if he was trying to communicate something with them of some sort, some warning or flicker of reassurance. And then he licked his lips, his tongue darting out slowly to moisten his lower lip.

And then he lowered his head.

_What is he doing? What the_ hell _is he doing?_

And then he put his mouth directly over the cut. My heart races as his lips part slightly and then the stinging of the wound becomes increasingly evident as his tongue comes into contact with my skin. My breathing went quick and shallow and my pulse quickened as the skin around the cut felt tight against the pressure he was exerting with his mouth.

_Was he... sucking out the blood?_ A plethora of unanswered questions came about in my head, the more important question: _Why was he doing this?_

The softness of his lips was overshadowed by the rubbing of his bristly chin against the tender skin, leaving it feeling sore and raw. I felt sickened as I suddenly imagined blood to be seeping out, being extracted. And then he withdraws, at last, removing his mouth from my skin. He leaned back, licking his lips again, his eyes twinkling. And then he slowly stood.

Unexpectedly, there was no throbbing or pain coming from the wound any longer. I sat there, frozen, still for a long moment, trying to wrap my head around what just happened. And then I sat up straight and peeked down at my foot.

There was nothing there. Not even a scar or any sign of blood...

It was as though I had imagined the whole thing, conjured up in my head the whole incident. There was no glass stuck in my foot, no puncture wound or evidence to show for it. But I was certain I hadn't imagined it – the dried, dark blood on the mattress was a sure-fire sign of that. Yet how did it heal so quickly?

I suddenly felt in a panic. "Did you do that?" I ask David, my voice coming out small and wobbly. "Did you make it heal?"

I realized it was probably foolish of me to accuse David of such assumptions, but at that moment I couldn't seem to care. When I looked up at David, I didn't understand the expression on his face. He looked defensive, on edge, for some reason, his arms crossed against his chest.

He grunted loudly. "Maybe I did, but then maybe I didn't..."

I opened my mouth to say a quick thank you, but then he turned his back on me, striding over to one of the bedside tables, his coat flapping against the light breeze that came with the quick movement. He strutted back over toward me and I flinched as I saw him hold something down to me.

"Now why don't you drink some more of this, Ruby," he says, tilting the bottle I had taken a sip from earlier toward me.

I could almost still faintly remember the taste, something resembling saline, coating my tongue. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but found it was just enough to satiate my thirst. Still, I would have preferred water.

I cringe away from the bottle, lowering my eyes so I wouldn't have to look at it, or _him_.

David thrusts it directly underneath my line of eyesight. "Here," he says, sounding annoyed. I caught the venom in his tone. "Knock yourself out..." He let the heavy bottle of liquid slide out of his hand and into my lap. The top of my legs tingled from the sudden burdening weight of it.

I exhaled sharply through my nose as I held it tightly by the neck of the bottle, holding it up into the air. The flickering flames from the can seemed to give it an ethereal, bright red glow. I uncapped it and lowered it down to my lips in time to see David watching me, his mouth pressed into a tight thin line.

_Well, here goes nothing..._ I decided. I took a mouthful, a large swig, and forced myself to swallow it down, to ignore the revolting taste. Suddenly, a loud bustle erupted into the room. I had an audience of three boys and my little sister – who was quite herself again, and they were all clapping at me and calling my name, welcoming me into a firm, cold embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, as usual, very much appreciated, of course... :)


	15. Necessary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby is puzzled over how she feels about David...

Marko put his arms around my shoulder, jostling me. "Welcome to the club at last, little sister," he said with a wistful sigh, smiling warmly. Paul gave me two thumbs up and laughed loudly. Dwayne was just silently grinning broadly.

I was mostly worried for David's reaction. What would he do? What would he think? I glance over in his direction apprehensively to see him seated in his wheelchair, legs crossed relaxedly out in front of him. He was observing the celebration that had erupted before us, his slate blue eyes following me.

And then he stood and strutted slowly toward me and then the room fell eerily silent. The laughter from Marko and Paul abruptly stopped as David approached me and I glanced over at Marko in time to find him looking back and forth between the both of us, chewing a hangnail nervously.

My feelings seemed to mirror the way Marko's expression was; I was suddenly nervous as I held David's gaze. He didn't seem to blink once while looking at me like that, with such unnerving attention that my hands began trembling underneath the burden of his gaze. He circles around me once, like some kind of wild, hungry shark, before stopping directly in front of me.

"Welcome, Ruby," he only said quietly. He raised a leather-clad gloved hand and placed it on my shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze before swivelling around and moving as far away from me as the cave would allow. I thought I caught him smirking.

"What now?" I ask him, my voice shaking.

David turns around and looks at Marko inquisitively. "Marko, what now?" he asks, feigning confusion.

Marko stops chewing on his nail and regards me excitedly. "Now?" he repeats, raising his eyebrows, smiling vastly. "David?"

David licks his lips before answering knowingly: "Now we _eat_ , Ruby..."

* * *

The Boardwalk is crowded tonight with clusters of teenage girls in dark denim skirts, boys wearing bright flannel shirts, Goth girls with cigarettes burning between their dark purple lipstick. It seemed like tonight was adolescence night, where all the cool kids hung out. Little did they know, the boys were circling them like snakes.

"Check her out," Paul says loudly so that a Goth girl can hear him, and she flips him off. He bursts out laughing and shakes his head. "If only she knew, man," he says to Dwayne in a low whisper.

I'm feeling anxious and tense as I observe David scoping out the crowds, his eyes following them although the haze of smoke from the cigarette hanging between his lips interferes constantly with his concentration, and he has to squint at the innocent passerby's through the white haze. Then he turns to face me, leaning across the railings, "Close your eyes and let your senses take over," David commands sternly. I slowly close my eyes. "What do you hear, Ruby?"

I wonder what will become of me if I relent; if I relent and turn into the very freak of nature that I detested. I have not been looking forward to this part, to say the very least.

I hear noises flittering around me – leaves rustling against the light breeze, footsteps trudging heavily against the wooden panels of the Boardwalk, waves crashing back and forth against the sand in the ocean.

"Help me! I can't find my mommy..." A small, scared little boy's voice cries brilliantly in my ears.

I imagine the little boy standing there, crying out for his mother, tears clinging to his eyelashes. I imagine strangers on the Boardwalk ignoring him, walking past, oblivious, trapped in their own little worlds. They probably wouldn't have even noticed if he went missing. To them, he would soon be just another unfortunate missing little boy posted on the bulletins.

A tragedy.

"I hear a little boy," I say out loud.

Then my eyes flicker open.

"And there you have it." David sounds excited.

I'm suddenly confused. "Why a little boy, David?"

He looks at me as though it should be obvious. "The younger; the easier the kill, Ruby."

"I'm not killing a human, David!" I realize I'm shouting. The very thought was inconceivable. I shake my head and lower my voice, "Let alone a little boy who's roughly around Susie's age. He's just a child..."

" _Blood_ is necessary, Ruby. It's something you just can't do without." He is almost whispering, the air suffused in cigarette smoke. "Just like you, Ruby. You're necessary."

My stomach lurches at his words and at the obvious tension caging around us like never before. What was going on here? What was David even saying?

"Still the reason stands, I'm _not_ killing a little boy, David," I object. We lapse into a long moment of bitter silence and when I turn to look at David's face again, I am startled by the immediate difference; he looks like a lost, helpless little boy. The mask of hostility I had so often become used to seeing on him had evaporated into – something more gentle? Well, _that_ was human.

And then he spoke again: "Come with me now." It was not a command, but a suggestion. His voice was surprisingly gentle, encouraging, and I had no choice but to obey.

* * *

In an alleyway, a man is urinating against the cold stone wall, his hand bracing the wall above him for support. David snorts derisively at the sight. "Would you look at that, Ruby?" I tense and follow the direction of his gaze.

"Disgusting, David," I whisper, quickly looking away at the sight, feeling suddenly sick inside.

"That bloodbag practically has your name all over him," I thought I heard David say as he began to approach the man. "Tasty."

"Oh, my God -" the man is completely flustered, fumbling to pull the zipper up on his trousers. "Oh, oh. I didn't see you there -"

David smirks, raising one eyebrow. "Just appeared out of thin air, huh?"

"Well, yes!"

I couldn't blame the man for being startled at David's sudden imposing appearance; his face was ghostly pale in the moonlight, his hair bright gray in contrast.

He ignores the man and looks over at me with a pointed, meaningful glance. "Ruby."

The man glances over at me, then at his watch hurriedly. "Well, uhm. I should really be off now..."

"Ruby," David says again, his voice low and icy with meaning. "You're not just gonna let this guy go free, are you now?"

The man gapes at him. "W-what on earth are you talking about, young man?"

"Go for it, Ruby. Make the first kill. Be one of us. Be with me." He says it in a deceptively calm voice; a treacherously soothing voice that was goading me, egging me on to kill this poor old man.

To my surprise, the elderly man starts crying, his shoulders shaking, his face buried in his hands. With every moment of hesitation that went on by, it was as if he finally was beginning to comprehend what would be happening to him. It terrified me yet sent an odd thrill of excitement racing through my body; his blood was singing in my ears.

After a few minutes, he stops crying and raises his head. His cheeks are wet, shining against the dim moonlight. "P-please, I'll give you anything you want," he pleads shakily.

"See, Ruby," David begins in a bright tone that didn't seem to match the gravity of the situation here. "He's willing to give you what you want – and what you want is his blood..." The man gasps and regards David coldly. "Take it while you have the chance, Ruby."

I hesitate, biting my lower lip down, before moving slowly toward him. He starts with his crying and shaking again, looking at me with an unconditional look of despair. In that instance, I felt monstrous and cruel. I felt no longer like myself, no longer in touch with reality. I began to leave my body; I began to inhabit the sound of his heart pulsating in fear, like a symphony to my ears, his blood rushing through his veins.

" _Blood is necessary. You're necessary."_

He was fighting against me, grunting and whimpering.

" _Be one of us. Be with me..."_

He was the honey nectar, I was the honeybee.

" _Make the first kill, Ruby..."_

He became still underneath me as I had him pinned to the wall, listening to the beat of his heart and the nothingness that was of my own. How his skipped like a rabbit, and thudded deafeningly in my ears like a hammer against rock.

I wanted to taste him, I wanted to tear him open and rip apart the fabric of his flesh - I could feel it in my teeth.

And then I felt him behind me, moving softly against me and then the powerful knowledge took hold; it was _him_. He wanted me like this – and for what reasons? What possible reasons could he have for turning me into this – this – predator?

He picks up the back of my hair and moves it away from my neck. He leans forward and put his mouth near my ear: "Do it now, Ruby, and you'll never look back." I was riveted, frozen, waiting to hear his thrilling voice once more. " _Immortality_ waits."

Immortality? Everything suddenly stops.

I blink a few times, and suddenly the elderly man's face is in my whole gloomy world, his eyes squeezed tightly shut and body coiled in shock and disgust. I wondered dismally for a moment what he had just seen of me. My mouth opened in numb shock to say something to the poor man, but nothing seemed to come out.

I instantly knew what this all had meant; he had done this thing to me and I had resisted. That was all. And perhaps, the owing price for resisting his coercion was most likely death. I move away from the man, my stomach reeling, and he sank down low to the ground, trembling.

And yet where was he? I no longer felt him with me. My neck seemed to burn in reaction to his touch when he had moved my hair out of the way. It was bizarre how David frightened me, and yet seemed to alight a tingling turmoil on the places of my skin his cold hands had last touched.

_Why was I feeling this way all of a sudden?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, of course, very much appreciated, as usual... :)


	16. Love Bites

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby finds a whole new meaning for the well-known phrase “Love Bites”...

I look up at the sky, at the flat gray clouds with darkness approaching as I stroll toward the Boardwalk. I'm alone. For some reason I feel the loneliest I have ever felt in my entire life... and cold... and scared. How could I have scared that poor old man so fiercely? And then something I did seemed to also set David off, to cause him to leave me standing there like some idiotic monster staring down at its prey while it quivered and begged.

I had come so close to killing the man and that thought sickened me...

I spot David by the railings of the Boardwalk, smoking another one of his darned cigarettes. I start to feel furious and stride straight over to him, my hands clenched into tight fists. "How could you ditch me like that?" I hiss in frustration at the back of his head, causing a few people to turn their heads in my direction and stare.

They probably thought it was laughable; some young and defenceless twenty-year old girl shooting her mouth off at this boy almost a few years older than her in age and who was in no way a match for her physically, who was taller and had unmatchable strength, it would seem...

David looks unfazed as he turns on his heel to look at me. "You were pissing me off, Ruby," he says, looking at me honestly. The bile rises in my throat as he takes a deep drag of his cigarette before continuing, "So in the midst of fighting the urge to both kill you right there in that alleyway or force that blood-bag down your throat so you could feed, I decided to leave..." He shrugs, smirking, and gives me a look that says, _it's over now, deal with it..._

I was unprepared for his honesty. "Oh. Well, if I piss you off that much, David, why don't you just -" I try to keep the hurt out of my voice, to maintain the same level of anger that is rising up in my throat and spilling out with my words. "Why don't you just kill me then, if I piss you off _that_ much?"

David at last looks taken aback by my sudden outburst, stunned, leaning back away from me from across the railings. I wait for him to say something. It dawns on me that I am mostly waiting for David to jump into action, to plunge his teeth into my neck, to drain every last drop of my blood until my heart gives out. Instead, he flattens the end of his cigarette on the railings, dousing the light and cutting off the smoke.

I shiver against the wind as he looks over at me defiantly, his eyebrows raised. "Careful, Ruby," he says with a clear note of caution in his voice. "Ask something of us boys and one day you might just get..." He comes up to me, very close, and I take a step back away from him, not only out of fear but out of shock. My back presses uncomfortably against the railings.

I must look horrified. "Then why don't you just go ahead and do it right now," I whisper angrily. "We both know I'll never be able to feed. It's cruel." My hands start trembling.

I couldn't look at him; I keep my eyes down to the ground, breathing, my breath steaming in front of me in white clouds from the dropping cold temperature of Santa Carla's late morning hours.

My first mistake was to peek up and look at him; David's imposing face was only inches away from mine. I had never seen him so close before; I was used to keeping a fair ways distance between us, mainly out of habit and fear. Although his skin was ghostly pale in the dark, I saw through the bright red-and-yellow flickering lights of the Boardwalk that glinted generously on his face that he was grimacing. I could see the outline of his hairline on his forehead, his hair a dark gray in contrast to the darkness surrounding us. I could smell him so vividly now – something I hadn't picked up before – the musky scent of tobacco and something else that seemed to cling onto every inch of him.

"Oh, well, hey. No problem!"

Before I can even comprehend what is happening, David lunges into action, placing two very cold hands over my ears. I shriek and whimper as he tips my head back, forcing me to look directly into those chilling eyes of his. I wince and try to yank my head away from him, but his hold was too strong.

I squeeze my eyes tightly shut and exhale a mouthful of air shakily.

_Please don't do it, please don't do it._ I chant over and over in my head. _I'm not quite ready to die or give up yet..._

My head and neck are beginning to throb from David's painful hold, my ears starting to ache dully from the iciness of his hands and fingers holding my head slanted upward toward him. The wind is knocked out of me as something cold and firm is suddenly brought to my mouth. Someone's teeth are biting gently at my lower lip and my eyes flutter slowly open to find that it's... _David_.

His face is so close to mine that I can make out his dark eyelashes, fluttering delicately below his eyelids. It suddenly dawns on me that he is – kissing me? His teeth are nibbling at my lip and I start to feel very sick. I was torn in that instance; I had built up inside all of these walls of hatred and hostility toward him, convinced myself that I was nothing at all like him and that Susie wasn't either, despite how much she had changed...

I had been so adamant on the idea that David loathed me and the very notion of me joining – and intruding on – his happy little clan yet now everything was suddenly unanswered, left me more confused than ever before. My head swims as David's teeth bite into my lower lip, a sea of excruciating pain suddenly inflicted on me, and then I realized what I was doing; I was responding to him, to his kiss...

I push him away; his lips and face at last away from mine. "David -" I pant, out of breath, my voice rasping.

My knees buckle underneath the profound weight of what just happened; why did I do that? Why did he _do_ that? By responding to him in that way wasn't I betraying everything I once stood for? Wasn't I betraying Susie by this? Was I giving up the fight for normalcy in her life – in _mine_ – by allowing this to happen?

I feel like I want to be sick. But then there's nothing in my stomach; no food.

I bring a trembling hand up to my mouth as David scoots away from me, leaning his elbows against the railing as though nothing had just even happened. My mouth feels bruised, sore, and when I move my hand away and look down at it... there's _blood_. I couldn't seem to wrap my head around it.

I glance over at David in numb shock, an unlit cigarette placed above his earlobe as he watches clusters of rowdy teenagers passing by; his slate blues squinted in what I thought was a pensive expression. Something seemed to be on his mind and, yet, mine was completely blank.

And then my eyesight started to go blurry, and then my hands went at it with their shaking again. I was never good with composing myself; I took off, ambling away from the railings. I didn't want David to see me like this – so pathetic and weak in response to his kiss.

I desperately wanted to vomit, and searched despairingly around me for the ladies restrooms on the Boardwalk. I accidently knocked shoulders with a Goth girl, who turned around to give me a dirty look, her dark lipstick painted lips pulled down into a threatening grimace.

_Oh, my God. What have I done?_

"Ruby -" I hear David call; he must be following me. Somebody catches my arm. "Sorry about what happened back there. No hard feelings, huh?" There is urgency in his voice. I swing around at the sound of it to find him staring straight ahead of me, tense and anxious. _Well, that's most definitely a first._

I seethe in embarrassment, wiping my eyes quickly with the sleeves of my jacket.

It was then that I learned something unexpected about David: that underneath the layers of his obnoxious and youthful exuberance; he could even be a vulnerable, loving person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, of course, very much appreciated, as usual... :)


	17. Never See Her Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David threatens Ruby with the safety of her little sister Susie, telling her that unless she becomes a full-fledged vampire, Ruby can never see Susie again...

"Okay, Ruby," I say to myself quietly as I walk along the wooden panels of the Boardwalk, trying to keep my voice as controlled as possible. "What happened is now in the past. It didn't mean anything to _him_ , and it didn't mean anything to _you_..." Or did it?

I expel a breath, shaking my head. He made it seem as if it was nothing – no big feat – so then maybe that's all it was? Nothing. A ridiculous spur of the moment thing. It didn't mean that any feelings had surfaced between either of us.

I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I didn't know why I wanted to; it wasn't as if it repulsed me or anything. My hand kept finding its way up to my mouth as I walked, touching my lips, and tracing the outline of them. My lips felt chapped and bruised, but it wasn't as if he had kissed me _that_ hard.

I shook my head as I walked toward the steps of the Boardwalk in a trance.

It was nothing, I kept telling myself. A shimmer of excited laughter from a bunch of teenagers my age breaks through the air. I glance over at them quickly, though not really seeing them clearly, as one of the youngest looking boys of the group hangs down across the railings. It dawned on me then that I felt I didn't even quite fit in, with the teenagers my age anymore.

Now that I stay with the boys, it is as if they have opened me up to this whole new world out here and just as quickly invited me in. It dawned on me that what truly terrified me the most was stepping out of this comfortable circle, where I can be who I am – human, untouched, and unpossessed. I was afraid to be one of them. But then sometimes you can't let your fears determine the way you live...

I don't want to be stereotyped by _who_ or _what_ I am, or what I _will_ be, if I relent – vampire, monstrous, cruel. But then perhaps they don't want to be either? Perhaps they didn't even have a say in what Max was doing to them at that time. But they too learned to step outside that circle and embrace what they have become.

I could do it just as much as they could-

"GROWL!" Susie yells as soon as she sees me, like a tiny little monster.

I gingerly turn and look at her. I'm suddenly startled as I see her face; she has a smear of red on her chin – blood, no doubt – and on her little hands and fingernails, as though she has been finger painting. Why didn't the boys bother wiping it off of her? She would have been a haunting sight for anyone to see, if they dared to pass and look down at her. But then, I was beginning to realize, the people of Santa Carla didn't seem to pay the boys much attention and, if they did, they wouldn't gawk at them for too long.

After what happened in the cave, how she reacted to my blood, she had altered for me in some way. I used to think of her as benign, a sweet little pearl; now I realize she is more like the boys than I had ever imagined possible.

Her long curly hair is blowing in the wind and she's barefoot. She lopes over to me and holds out her arms. I kneel down level to her and force myself not to recoil away from her as she wraps herself around my shoulders. "I saw her," she whispers quietly in my ear, as though telling me a deadly secret.

"Who?" I ask her as she leans against me, and I lift her up, her body limp in my arms.

"My old friend..."

Susie giggles, pointing past my shoulder. I turn my head into the direction she's pointing at. There seems to be nobody there, but then I see her; a woman is standing by the bulletin on the Boardwalk, observing the pictures closely. Who was she? She is wearing a long black summer dress that ripples slightly against the breeze.

"Oh, your friend is wearing a very lovely dress," I prompt, searching my memory for why she seems so familiar.

"Yes," Susie agrees, toying with a piece of my hair. She seems hyper almost, for some reason. Fully awake, and then it dawns on me that she had disappeared off with Marko, Paul, and Dwayne earlier. Had she only just fed minutes ago? "Her names Karen!"

_Karen..._ I stare at the woman's retreating form, my mouth wide-open. I wanted to laugh uncontrollably as I realized who she was. Our _mother_. In a way I felt unbelievably relieved; she wasn't dead, as David had told Susie, but then it was as if Susie didn't even realize _who_ she was – and how much of a big deal it would have been for our mother if she had laid eyes on Susie, when I was almost certain she assumed we were dead and long gone now.

I drag my eyes back to Susie, who has a finger in her mouth, sucking at the red stained skin on her thumb. "Susie, did you talk to her?" I ask her urgently.

Her little dirty face scrunches up in confusion. She doesn't answer me. I sink back down to the ground and pull her away from me, shaking her shoulders, taking a good look at her.

"Well, Susie, did you?" My voice rises and her lip quivers. I didn't mean to make her feel so upset in that instance, but I just felt scared. So scared. How much suffering would our mother be able to take until it was the last and final straw?

She looks small and scared now, tears clinging onto her eyelashes. "No!" she cries and then runs away from me, in the opposite direction. I realize the boys are standing there, right near us, probably having witnessed my outburst. She runs over to David, and starts to cry.

_Oh, poor Susie. What have I done to her?_

David glances at me for the very first time after the whole kissing incident, bends over Susie, and then whispers something into her ear. I don't know what he is saying to her, but I immediately feel wretched for making her upset.

She moves away from David and tugs on Marko's jacket. "Has Ruby been crying?" I hear her whisper to Marko, sniffing loudly. Marko looks at me silently, his forehead scrunched pensively, and then grabs Susie by her arms and hoists her up into the air, her giggling madly all the while to my relief; it seemed like a deliberate distraction on Marko's part so that he wouldn't have to answer the question and, more importantly, divulge to her _why_ I was crying.

It was then that I realized Marko must have known, somehow, what went on between David and me barely half an hour ago. My cheeks burned in embarrassment over the unwelcoming thought. Things seemed different... there was a new air of serious tension brewing around us all; Paul didn't even seem on the verge of contagious laughter anymore. He was staring down at his hands, picking at the dirt from underneath his fingernails.

Dwayne was as silent as ever, staring down at his combat boots, his arms hanging at his sides. And _David_... well, he was the same as usual, indifferent, as though nothing strange had ever happened – and I kind of liked it that way. He removed the cigarette he had placed behind his ear and played with the metal lighter in his hand, flicking it open and shut with his thumb several times before lighting up his cigarette.

His face seemed to glow eerily white as the orange flickering flame connected to the end of his cigarette, his unshaven chin tinged with what I recognized was blood, and then he took a deep drag, his eyes closing momentarily before refocusing them onto me. "Here's the deal, Ruby," he begins as whitish smoke trails out of his nostrils, "You'll never see Susie again, not until you're going to be one of us, Ruby."

I stare at his face for a long moment, not believing and not wanting to. "You can't do this," I whisper resignedly, feeling too tired to fight.

"Do it, Marko," he says stubbornly, glancing behind his shoulder at Marko quickly. In that instance, I felt such rage. And hatred. And sadness...

Marko hesitates, taking one of Susie's hands into his own. He caught my gaze and I saw that, for once, he did not smile his vast smile as he usually did. I immediately missed that smile; it always seemed to lighten the mood, the tension in the air. But without it, my whole world was dark and gloomy, and stifling.

"Goodbye, Ruby." He said it in a hushed whisper, and then looked down at Susie, who was still sucking her thumb, watching me, oblivious to the whole thing. Then she struggled against him as he pulled her down the steps, causing her to topple sideways against the ground. I faintly heard her cry.

"Either you feed," David continues, "or you say goodbye to your little Susie back there. What's it gonna be, Ruby?"

I watch him as he flicks his cigarette down and over the Boardwalk with such hatred. I felt like slapping him out of rage, my fingers twitching, but then I couldn't bring myself to do it. Why was I hesitating, if it was the only thing I could do in defence? But then inflicting pain on him, the thought, made every part of me hurt inside.

David shakes his head in disbelief and smirks. "It's not that hard of a decision, Ruby."

"Yeah, come on, girl," Paul speaks at last, goading me on.

I could never, _ever_ let myself live without my little sister. Although I trusted the boys would never dare hurt her, I just couldn't... She was my flesh and blood. That made her more like me than all of them combined, no matter if she _does_ do what they do – feed on humans. I couldn't let her go...

"Fine," I agree quietly. "But it's so easy for you all to do and so difficult for me..."

And then David snorts derisively and laughs at some kind of inside joke that I'm not included on. "Oh, we can change that. Can't we, boys?" There's something cruel and knowing in his voice and I watched him strut away from me, climbing down the steps, his coat flapping against him, hating him so much in that instance and yet not really understanding _why_ I couldn't hurt him to defend myself.

* * *

The temperature in the air of Santa Carla is dropping, the sky a coppery blue as the boys trudge along the sandbank. I try to keep up with them, the sand feeling heavy and slippery against my sneakers. I didn't know how long we were walking for, but it felt like hours. And then, suddenly, all noises; the leaves of the trees rustling against the wind, the sound of waves crashing against the ocean, the heavy clinking of the metal chains attached to Paul's jacket, are swallowed up as ahead loud music is played, blaring out of a stereo.

"Aerosmith on the boom-box," Paul comments, clasping his hands together excitedly.

In the distance, a party suddenly comes into view; two motorbikes are parked opposite each other, providing a soft dim light as four silhouettes - two slim shadows, obviously women – come into view, moving around. As we reach closer, I suddenly realize the two women are dancing, swaying their hips around sensually as the two men are sprawled out on the sand, drinking, observing them.

David slows his pace and then waits for me to catch up to him. He knocks his shoulder against mine. "You don't have to look so nervous, Ruby," he tells me gruffly. "Just let your instincts take over, channel all of that hunger and then" – he claps his leather-clad gloved hands together noisily and I wince at the unexpected sound - "you can come home with us, see your little Susie, and everything will be as right as rain..."

Screams erupt from ahead of us and it was then that I realized Paul and Dwayne had already jumped in. I stop still, frozen, shivering. How can I do this? Why do they make it sound so easy?

I feel ill as David strolls on ahead of me. His silhouette is lithe and dangerous as I make out him grabbing one of the women by the arm, wrenching her toward him, a high-pitched shriek coming from her.

The stench is overwhelming as I reach them and I have to cover my eyes as I see one of the men lying headfirst against the sand, blood and red entrails coming out from the wound on his neck. He is still and then it dawns on me that he is obviously dead. Paul is laughing, a spooky sound that seems to echo through the air, and when I turn to look at him, his hair is chaotically wild, and his eyes murderously red.

He grins at me as a small drop of blood dribbles down from the corners of his mouth, his fangs exposed and mouth full of red entrails.

_Oh, my God!_

This is beyond reality.

My hands start to shake as I watch David with the woman, one of his hands covering her mouth as her body shakes violently; she is very much still alive, her eyes wide-open in fear as she stares straight ahead at Paul who is now taunting Dwayne. Tears leak from her eyes as she meets my gaze and I hear her moan against his hand. Was she calling for me? Did she want me to help her by making David release her?

"Ruby." David's voice broke me out of my momentary distraction. His voice was encouraging, tender.

His other hand came up to her jaw, moving her blond hair away from her neck. He gave me access to her pale, clear flesh and I watched almost in fascination as she shuddered against his cold touch. I felt this intense longing, this desire, to reach out, to press my hand against her neck and feel her pulse reverberating through to my fingertips like a set of drums.

Without thinking, I inched closer toward David, and lifted up a trembling hand. I place my hand against her neck, feeling the warmth of her that must so mirror my own, and I felt her flinch against my touch. Her screams were muffled as David tightened his hand on her mouth and I suddenly felt embarrassed for letting my fascination take over.

I realized how overwhelming it felt, how thrilling, to see her shy away from me in fear. But why was she so afraid of me? Weren't the others – Paul especially – more frightening than me combined?

I felt like myself, exactly as I usually am. I'm not a person that people usually shy away from – so why was she so frightened? She made me feel as if I truly was one of them...

"Ruby," David prompts icily as she struggles against his hold.

It was then I realized I wanted her – to rip her apart – every inch of her. But I wasn't sure how.

"Can you do it for me, first?" I ask, in a small voice that didn't sound like my own.

"No problem." I observed him, reaching up on tiptoes to get a better sight as he lowered his head, pressing his mouth against her neck. She struggled even more violently against him, her shoulders shaking, her shrieks growing louder and prolonged.

And then David took his mouth away from her skin and I saw her flesh, open and ready for me. Drops rolled down the side of her cheeks as she became eerily still and I moved closer, David levelling her neck down to my mouth.

I was so close to her, I could almost taste it.

"Go for it, Ruby." I smelt her on his breath and on his lips.

This was it.

It had to be this way.

I have no other choice.

I put my mouth over the wound on her neck. I close my eyes and for a moment I am still, the tinge of her blood coating the saliva in my mouth. It wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. She tasted of saline, coppery...

I felt David's fingers come across my cheek; his touch no longer cold, but warm in contrast.

The first mouthful of her made me want to gag, but I tried to hold on.

For Susie's sake.

It would seem blood was an acquired taste. The more I swallowed, the more easier it seemed to become.

As natural as anything.

Or so it would seem...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, as usual, very much appreciated, of course... :)


	18. Hit the Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby gives Susie some advice, and then feels like herself (but not exactly) for the first time since she, her mother and Susie have come to Santa Carla, as well as what being part of a protective family feels like...

As we arrive back to the cave, Paul immediately rushes over to the opening of the crack. "Time to hit the lights..." he says loudly in a sing-song voice, and then he is immediately gone. Dwayne follows closely behind him, slinking through the crack.

And then I see Marko. He appears from the bed which used to be my resting place, looking apprehensive, Susie toddling alongside him. "David?" I can't make out what he is asking David, but I see David claps his hands together and smirks at his unspoken question.

"Oh, you bet, pal," he says and I caught the haughtiness in his tone. "Perfect timing, too."

And then Marko's face breaks out into a big, radiant smile as he looks over at me. "That's ace, little sister!"

He comes at me, scoops me up, ten hundred pounds and sneakers and all, and spins me around wildly. I burst out laughing at his hysterics. He seems genuinely exultant, to my absolute surprise. It was as if he truly wanted me to be a part of their bizarre family, and now that I really was – one of them now - he revelled in it. He quickly sets me back down onto my feet as David gives the pair of us a skeptical, bewildered look.

"Perfect timing for what, David?" I ask, confusedly as I try to catch my breath.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, Ruby. The suns coming up; we don't wanna be frying." His voice is grim. I realize then that he almost looked afraid – like the different David than he usually was. Was sunlight the one thing he truly feared the most? I wondered.

I hesitate, moving slowly toward the opening. "Why does it smell so bad in there?" I ask before I am able to stop myself.

David suddenly looks offended, his eyebrows raised halfway up to his hairline. " _What_?" He looks over at Marko dubiously. "Marko?"

Marko shrugs, grinning. "I can't smell anything..."

_Maybe it was just me then..._

I walk over to the crack, and look in. I try not to think about the stench as I enter; I don't want to make a big deal out of it, considering the boys have no idea what I am talking about. Paul and Dwayne are already suspended in the air, deep in their sleeping, and for some reason I am always breathless when I see the sight. Dwayne's long, dangling dark hair is falling past his shoulders, his mouth pulled into a tight, grim line as he sleeps. Paul's sandy coloured hair is splayed out underneath him, and he is grinning as he sleeps; he must be dreaming of something very humorous then, but it didn't surprise me one bit.

How could I do that? How could I get up there on the ceiling and sleep the way they do? It was baffling to me.

I turn my head to find David and Marko observing me, watching me take the whole sight in. "You coming up with?" David asks, pointing up at Dwayne and Paul's peaceful, motionless bodies.

I hesitate. "I... I don't think so, David," I whisper uncomfortably, trying not to wake them. "I think I might just... sleep down here on the ground." I glance down at the ground as I say this, and realize the ground is a mess; covered in dirt and gravel and branches. It certainly wouldn't be very comfortable, but I knew it wasn't quite possible for me to do what _they_ do.

David grunts in response. "Fine, Ruby," he says in a hushed, low whisper. "Suit yourself."

I glance back at him to find him shrugging out of his long, dark trench coat. He tosses it at me, to my shock, and I have to catch it quickly before it slips out of my hands and onto the dirt. Susie is staring at me, her face still stained with blood.

"I want to sleep next to you," she tells me quietly and so I wrap David's coat around her to keep her warm and comfortable as we both sit on the ground together.

* * *

Everything around us is gray. Slowly colour is beginning to leak through one of the tiny cracks in the ceiling, like a slowly spreading stain of blood orange and it suddenly dawns on me that David was in fact right; it _is_ near morning. Through the crack it illuminates a soft, white beam of light and moths and mosquitoes cling to the source of it, flying around the light in a whirl.

I dismally wonder what would happen if the light reaches out and touches one of the boys, who are hovering in the air silently, and immediately regret having such thoughts. Would it kill them? Would it kill _us_? I wrap more of David's dark coat over Susie, covering half of her tiny body out of fear.

And then she speaks, in a tiny, hushed voice as she watches me take everything in: "Are you and David my new mommy and daddy now?" she asks, quite casually.

_Oh my God._

I stare at her face through the darkness, startled. Where did she possibly get _that_ idea from? "No." I frown. "What makes you say that?"

She thinks about it for a long moment, her face scrunched up and puckered, deep in thought. "David bosses everybody around, but he doesn't boss you around because you're a girl!"

I laugh. "That's ridiculous, Susie." She clutches her pink toy in her arms, hugging it against her chest. "Besides, you're a girl, _too_. Aren't you?"

"But sometimes he still bosses me around," she says sadly.

I lean back and look at her, stunned. "He does?" How _dare_ he? He's not her father. "Well, I wouldn't bother listening to him. He has _no right_ to boss you around, Susie."

She looks at me doubtfully. "But then, if I don't listen he gets real angry."

"But that's just David..."

She leans forward on her knees, and whispers in my ear, "Sometimes he says bad words and throws stuff around when I don't. It's _really_ scary!"

"David? _Scary_?" I roll my eyes, shuddering. "I can't imagine that..." She doesn't seem to catch my sarcasm. She looks frightened; it hurts me to see her look that way. "He _can't_ hurt you, Susie," I tell her gently. David hurting Susie – it wasn't something I could imagine him doing easily. Sure, he _was_ frightening and intimidating at times but he seemed almost protective and caring of her.

"I don't know..." She doesn't sound too convinced.

"Has he done anything to make you think he would?"

She sucks on her thumb anxiously and looks as though deciding whether she should tell me or not. She whispers in my ear again, "One time I was eating my food and he went real mad at me because I got in the way while he was trying to eat his!"

I didn't know what to say to her about that. I felt the rage simmering up inside of me; I wanted to confront David about it, but then realized he was already probably too deep in his sleeping to even register what it was I was babbling on about. "But then sometimes when people are hungry, they act irrationally, Susie," I explain to her, curling a piece of her soft hair around my forefinger. "He probably didn't mean it." I try to brighten my tone, "Do you remember when our daddy used to get grumpy when mom didn't make him breakfast in the morning before she left for work?"

"No."

"Well, anyway, that's some men for you. If they don't eat, they get grumpy as hell." _Although I was certain it was a different case with David... he's just an ill-humoured person altogether._ "They throw things around, yell at the top of their lungs! Be cruel to the people they care about the most!"

Susie giggles. "That's silly."

"Yes, it _is_ ," I agree, smiling at her. "That's why you don't pay attention when somebody's like that. Okay?"

Someone growls above us, a deep unpleasant sound clattering from the back of their throat. "Will the both of you girls stop prattling on about me as though I can't hear you up here, and go to sleep?"

_David. Oops._

Susie stares at me in silence, her mouth wide-open. And then one of the boys pretend to snore loudly, making funny noises, and Susie starts giggling boisterously, a little hand cupping her mouth.

" _Marko_." David's voice is low and full of annoyance.

The humorous sounds that have Susie shaking with laughter immediately stop. "Sorry, David," Marko says softly above us. There's a hint of a smile in his voice.

After what seemed like hours, Susie is asleep, finally. She sleeps next to me, curled around me like a little kitten, her head tucked underneath my chin, the pink toy David gave her pressed against me. She talks sometimes and weeps, laughs, shakes and yells out in her sleep. Some of the words aren't exactly coherent, but sometimes I hear them out to be: "David!" or "No, no, no..."

I wonder about what it is she is dreaming of, what has her so afraid. Is it _him_ who is scaring her? I listen to her carefully in the darkness, the way her lips part in surprise as she dreams. I close my eyes, trying to induce myself into a quick and easy slumber until nightfall when we must all wake again. I listen for her breathing. I hear nothing. No heartbeat, no anything.

I hear no heartbeat from within myself either. I feel cold; the hard rock on the ground making my legs and back stiff. I suppose this is what we are now; a never-changing body where no blood moves inside of us, no heartbeat...

Breathing isn't even a necessity anymore.

This is a relief, because now I am not able to breathe in the stench that has surrounded us. In a way, it was becoming oddly comforting to be here, in this crevice in the cave, where the boys are hovering silently above us, like a protective shield. If anyone dared to try attack us – they would get to them first, I had no doubt about that.

I no longer felt afraid, when thinking this through. I suppose now I truly understood what it was like, to be part of a protective family, and to be able to feel as if I finally _did_ belong, now that I truly was one of them. Well, except I didn't feel any different. I didn't feel like this monstrous reproduction of myself, as I thought I would. I didn't feel possessed. I simply felt like... _me_.

But then he was about to change all of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nice feedback is, as usual, very much appreciated, of course... :)


End file.
